Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i know when dealing with pieds a low white pairing can produce a high white offspring. when dealing with genetic stripes, can a full stripe be born of parents with broken stripe?

Yes, it is variable. My original male is a perfect stripe and he throws both full striped and broken striped offspring.

Eric
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www.ESReptiles.com

I'd love to hear more experiences on variations in stripe quality for homozygous genetic stripe offspring.

A guy near me has a pretty nice pair of stripes. The first year they produced all of the babies had lots of side patterning. The next time, the same pair produced, all of the babies in the 2nd clutch where much more typical striped than the least side patterned baby from the first clutch. Since the genetics where exactly the same there must be some environmental variable. I asked in a post about incubation temperatures but heard back from someone who has experimented with them and doesn't think that's it. Could it be diet? Would be nice to know what to do to make the cleanest stripes.

The genetics are not exactly the same. Yes, full siblings share the same parents, but only identical twins will share the same exact genetics. Full siblings (of humans, ball pythons, and most animals) share 50% of their genetic structure with each other. So, it is entirely possible, and probable that the difference in stripe and side patterning is still genetic rather than environmental.

I have to agree with you on that. I think the best, most consistant Genetic Stripes come from full Striped G Stripes that are also basically patternless on the sides. You can make a nice full Striped specimen with broken Striped parents BUT I would much rather have one that's full Striped and know that the parents were both full Striped /Patternless sided as well. I think Genetic Stripes that are selectively bred are by far better than ones that come from pairings with alot of variation (meaning a history of broken Stripes or heavy side markings in the genetic background ). I have thought this for some time and continue to feel that way, until further evidence changes my mind that is how I look at the project . I was very picky what stock I bred out and started with F1 stock sired by Bob's original Genetic Stripe male and stuck with the idea that a full stripe with next to zero side pattern was the goal to shoot for . I am glad I was selective early on as it did make a difference in how my baby G Stripes turned out.

Anthony McCain

Point taken and I should have worded that better. Certainly it is possible that the parents contained both genes to create side pattern and genes not to (could well be genes other than the four copies of the stripe mutation in the pair) and just by the roll of the dice the entire first clutch got the genes for side pattern and the entire second clutch didn't. I don't remember the sizes of the two clutches but the difference between them was so stark that I still believe it is much more likely that there was an environmental factor. I’ve heard of temperature extremes causing non genetic striping before so incubation temp was my first thought for enhancing or interfering with genetic striping but like I said I’ve heard from a breeder that actually experimented with incubation temp of genetic stripes and didn’t report seeing difference.

I've also heard of incubation temp fluctuations causing striping in balls and burms, so it may be a cause. I'd still be a little more inclined to believe that the cause is either polygenic to the point of being too difficult to discern, or completely random (like the level of white *may* be in pieds).