Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a few questions about these two. is tangerine a simple recessive trait? and about black milks-do these come out of the egg black or do they change color? if they change color, does that mean they look like a normal tri-color till they change color?

I'll let someone else answer your honduran question because I'm a moron when it comes to genetics (but I think it is simple recessive)

Black milks are born as tricolors and they gradually darken with age. They are usually completely black or have very little pattern left by 2 years of age but it differs with each animal.
Here's a pic of one of my hatchlings from last year right out of the egg.
Chris

The tangerine color variation in hondos isn't a "normal" recessive trait... this question comes up once in a while, and it seems that a tangerine x tricolor breeding actually tends to produce mostly tangerines. As far as I know, what's going on in terms of genes isn't fully understood. Nor is the ontogenetic color change that black milks go through... they start out as red/black/white or red/black/yellow tricolors, and usually turn black within 2 years. Most lose the white/yellow bands first, some lose the red first... hopefully, once black milks become more popular, breeders will start experimenting and trying to figure out why.

Here's my female black milk, she's a few weeks old in the first pic, a yearling in the second.

Nate's right about the tangerines. AFAIK, nobody is really quite sure how it works. But it's certainly not simple recessive. This year for example, I bred two tangerines together and it resulted in four tangerines... and one tricolour.
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-Paul

ok, well that sure is interesting. but if you bred 2 tri-colors together could you get a tangerine?

Based on research Louis Porras made in Honduras, he concluded the tangerines were from lower elevations and tri-colors are found in higher elevations. Somewhere in between the two meet and produce variations of both phenotype, not one phenotype is geneticaly stronger then the other and when bred together will produce 50/50 clutches of both colors.

A tangerine X tangerine breeding can yield tri-colored babies, specialy if orginaly the tangerines had a tri-colored parent.