Reptile & Amphibian Forums

im sure its an easy question but what does het mean? whats the differance between a het piebald and a piebald? there is alot i wanna learn, but like I said, I'm new and it all gets me confused. is there a post that explains differances between spiders and bumblebees ect...
thanks,
scott

Het = Heterozygous. You will need some basic understanding of genetics to understand how morphs and morph combinations work.

Here is a good start:

The Complete Ball Python: A Comprehensive Guide to Care, Breeding and Genetic Mutations by Kevin McCurley
www.newenglandreptile.com/

Pythons of the World, Vol 2 by David G. Barker & Tracy M. Barker
www.vpi.com/

Care sheets:
www.newenglandreptile.com/CareBall.html
www.kingsnake.com/ballpythonguide/
www.vpi.com/publications/the_ball_python_care_sheet
www.anapsid.org/ball.html

Forums:
www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=244

Morph Guides:
www.newenglandreptile.com/nerd/index.php/ball-pythons/nerd-s-ball-python-collection.html
www.ballpython.com/page.php?page=morphs

Welcome! Best of luck!
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.1 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

well said!

Always glad to see new people get interested in Ball Pythons or just snakes in general.

Above post offers good reading material you should definatly do your home work and learn all you can. However just a heads up if you want to learn all the ball morphs that there is over a hundred now, what with all of the combo morphs. That is 1 snake with more that 1 visable morph or het.

As for what a het is, a het is a snake that is a carrier for that morph but does not show it visually. For example albino or pibald are recessive morphs. A het for either or both will look normal. Except SOMETIMES het pieds can be what are called ringers. Ringers are snakes that have a white patch or ring all the way around the body usually very close to the vent. Het pied ringers will often show the pied orange coloration next to the white patch.

Hets are produced when they get one morph gene from one parrent and a normal gene from the other. Like if you breed a pibald with a normal snake then all the resultant babys will be hets. If you breed a pied with a het pied each egg has a 50% chance of being a pied and a 50% chance of being a het. A strait up coin toss. If you breed to het pieds then each egg has a 1 in 4 shot at being pied.

Sorry for rambling on. Hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Amanda
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1 BP
4 Cal Kings 3 alb 1 het
3 Alb Corn
1 Rev Alb Nelsons

oh yes. any and all info has been very helpful. thanks to all for the info. I'm a tattoo artist so the links to the pics help out a lot to put a face with the name. thanks again.

Het= Heterozygous means that the snake carries the trait. The animal looks normal but has the genetic information to breed the morph. For example. If you have a het for piebald and you breed it to another het for piebald, your chances for offspring are 1/4 the morph, 1/2 het for the piebald snake (like the parents) and 1/4 normal offspring.
If you breed it to a piebald you get 1/2 piebald and 1/2 het for piebald (chances)

It is very hard to grasp, at least it has been for me. I have to look at it for a long time and I usually have to go online to find the answers.