Reptile & Amphibian Forums

and how breeding two "hets" for whatever will give you what ur trying to get...

how true is this??

-Lou

I don't remember all the correct terms, but I'll try your best. Certain traits require an entire set of genes in order for an animal to "show" it. So if you breed an animal that is hetero for one thing with another animal that's hetero for the same thing. Chances are they will throw babies that display the characteristics. Basically, two halves make a whole.

heya louie,

It's very true and common with a lot of reptiles, especially snakes. How true it is with dragons is still up to debate with certain morphs out there, and that's a whole other topic/argument lol.

But in short, being heterozygous or "het" for a certain trait means that an animal carries the genetic trait for whatever it is het for but does not show it. If the animal showed that trait it would be called homozygous.

For example. Take an albino boa or burmese pythons. Breed it to a regualr snake. 100% of the babies will be "het" for albino. All babies will look normal but carry the gene for albinoism.

If you then take the two "het" snakes and breed them together, you will get about 25% that would be homozygous or albino (showing that trait), 50% that are het for albino, and 25% that would just come out normal. That in part is how you get things that are 33% or 66% possilbe het for whatever. Obviously those numbers are not exact, but are the industry standard numbers people use.

Hope that helps.

brandon
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Dragons by Nature

One more guestion.

You say:

Homozygous x Standard = Heterozygous

Heterozygous x Heterozygous = 25% Homozygous, 50% Heterozygous and 25% normal.

But how can you tell the difference between a Heterozygous and a normal?...they both don't show the trait it is bred for.

Greets from Holland
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You cannot tell the difference between het and normal, only through future breeding will that become obvious. To say a dragon is "het" for anything is probobly not true, we will have to see with some of the new strains. the Translucent might be a true mutation, but it is so new and not in the hands of very many people so time will tell. I have seen pictures on this board of albino beardeds that would be a true mutation. I would like to here from some of the people breeding the white variations as to the numbers produced from these breedings and the percentages of white offspring in the clutch ect.
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You can't tell if the snake is "het" or not by physically looking at it. The hets will look completely normal. That is why you often see "possible het" reptiles for sale.. or 33% chance or 66% chance.. it's all percentages. The only way to know 100% sure if a "het" is a true het (without breeding it) is if a normal is bred to a homozygous animal such as an albino. Then 100% of the offspring will be het for albino.. but again the babies will look completley normal.

The only way to find out if you have a het or not (if you don't know it's 100% het) is to breed it back to either another het, or whatever homozygous trait that it is het to.. again such as an albino.

Example: If you breed your "het" ablino boa to another "het" albino boa or albino boa and do not produce any albino boas.. then you know your original "het" was not a "het" and was a normal..... more then likely.

This is not always true however, sometimes you can indeed have a true "het" and breed it to another "het" and due to percentages you may not get any albinos or anything.. this is more common in reptiles that produce a small amount of eggs/offspring. But it does happen. especially when you start having animals that are double het for things.. but that is another confusing topic.

It's also important to note that there are many different "hets" for all kind of homozygous traits.. such as albino, leucistic, snow, anerythristic, and so on. It goes on and on.

This info is not geared towards dragons, this comes mainly from the snake world.

Hope that helps.

brandon
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Dragons by Nature

thanks everyone...

just curious... to see how people claim something is het.. when they havent even bred teh animal... goes to show that breeders out their will label anything to sell it...

Thanks AGAIN !
-Lou

With the exception, possibly, of a couple of color morphs I think it is safe to say that any claim for a dragon "het" for anything should be taken with a grain of salt. You do not have to breed an animal to be sure it is het for a trait if you have a proven recessive trait and breed het parents, as was posted, the normal offspring will be het. What color or trait was the original poster concerned with?? There are a lot of colorfull dragons around and I have no doubt that the genetics are playing a big part in more and more color showing, but it is almost comical with the naming of these pseudomorphs and funnier still when someone claims to have an animal "het" for one of them. I cannot wait until I produce my first wildberrysplash x screamingtomato clutch!
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Oh oh oh, I want one LOL

All the names and het %, etc.. can and do get confusing. I am thinking of changing all mine from "specific color names" to just "yellow/orange" and "White/brown" LOL

>>With the exception, possibly, of a couple of color morphs I think it is safe to say that any claim for a dragon "het" for anything should be taken with a grain of salt. You do not have to breed an animal to be sure it is het for a trait if you have a proven recessive trait and breed het parents, as was posted, the normal offspring will be het. What color or trait was the original poster concerned with?? There are a lot of colorfull dragons around and I have no doubt that the genetics are playing a big part in more and more color showing, but it is almost comical with the naming of these pseudomorphs and funnier still when someone claims to have an animal "het" for one of them. I cannot wait until I produce my first wildberrysplash x screamingtomato clutch!
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Lisa
www.beginnersbasics.com

I was just curious cause I saw that Kev from Dragons den was selling some Het for Leucistic pairs... and i was just wondering how it is known wether or not they are het...

I wasnt planing on purchasing a pair... just curious...

I have the same question about Leucistic dragons, if they are truly Leucistic then all offspring from 2 parents that were Leucistic would be Leucistic. There seems to be a couple of thoughts on Leucistic mutations in several species and one is that it can include differing degrees of reduced color so I will concede that it is possible to have some variation in a clutch, but there could be no "normal" type dragons in that clutch. If there are "normal" type dragons in such a pairing then I would question a breeders ability to sell an individual labelled as het.
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