Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm trying to decifer all these color and pattern morphs and it all seems like this tricky game. I was wondering how some of you learned and if there are any good books that really break it down. Thanks

When it comes to proven genetic mutations and line bred/polygenic traits in hognose snake I just appiled what I have learned in my 15 years of breeding othere species...

It is really not that hard once you have an understanding of how each morph works as far as how it is passed down from the "parents" to the offspring...

To break it down you have your co-dominant morphs... The Anaconda morph is the only proven co-dom in hogs so far... Basically an anaconda is technically a visual het... This means that when an anaconda is bred to a normal the genetic ods dictate that half the clutch will be normal and half will be anaconda... When 2 anacondas are bred together they produce offsping that are different from both parents which would be the super form or homozygous form of the anaconda...

Recessive genetics in hogs include albinos, hypos, lavenders,
toffee bellies and so on... Hets for a recessive gene carry one allele therefore they do not show the trait... In order to produce the visual of the recessive both alleles for that mutation need to be present inorder for it to be displayed...

Polygenic or linebred traits like reds, yellows, greens and so on are naturally occuring colors in hogs that are bred out to increase the color and to make it much more pronounced and dramatic... Sometimes when these polygenic genes are bred out and the line is strong, they can act almost recessive and sometimes even dominant...

I am not certain if any dominant gene has been proven in hogs as of yet but they work similar to codominant genetics only there is no visual super form...

Looking at punnett squares does not really help in understanding genetics... It is more of a tool to predict outcome... The outcome is cut and dry on paper but real life situations do not always mirror a punnett square... I can however give you an idea on what the genetics ods are and what you could expect from a breeding...

Hope this helps and was not all over the place... LOL

That is very helpful.
Another thing I don't really get is the percents involved, like 66% double het for snow for example. What does that percentage really mean and what would have produced it. Are there any real odds of getting any morph out of it? I bought a pair yesterday because they were the price of normals so I thought it was worth a shot.

66% het is the offspring that result from a het to het breeding... So if you breed a het albino to a het albino, 25% will be albino and the remainig normal looking offspring are 66% het albino...

>>66% het is the offspring that result from a het to het breeding... So if you breed a het albino to a het albino, 25% will be albino and the remainig normal looking offspring are 66% het albino...

To clarify this a bit further... 66% means a 66% *chance* that they carry the gene.

The 66% comes from the fact that 1/4 should be visually albino... Once you exclude those (in yellow) the remaining 3/4 (in blue) have a 2/3 (66%) chance of carrying the gene. Notice 1 of the 3 blue squares is a normal, 2 of the 3 blue squares are het.

-----
Josh Loehr

Okay this is making sense now. I was talking to someone about a 100% het albino. He said it was bred from an albino female and a normal male. How would that be 100% het when logic says 50% het because only one parent was albino? Or would the female have a better chance of passing those genes on making a stronger chance het.?

Thank you all.

We will get you to understand genetics in no time... LOL It is not that hard...

When you breed the homozygous form (in this case Albino) to a normal the albino gene is passed down to all the offsping making them 100% heterozygous (normal looking but carrying the gene for albino)...

Now, if you bred a 100% het to a normal... Those offspring would be only 50% het for albino...

>>Okay this is making sense now. I was talking to someone about a 100% het albino. He said it was bred from an albino female and a normal male. How would that be 100% het when logic says 50% het because only one parent was albino? Or would the female have a better chance of passing those genes on making a stronger chance het.?
>>
>>Thank you all.

You are confusing % chance of het with homo/heterozygous. % het is not a concentration (e.g. 10% fruit juice). It's a chance of carrying the gene.

You're right, that male only has 1 albino gene. That makes it het.

You know 100% that it's het because the mom can only pass albino and the dad can only pass normal. So 100% of the offspring will carry 1 albino gene... And it take 2 to be visually albino.
-----
Josh Loehr

Aha! Thanks fellas. That has to be about the most broken down and simple explanation I've seen yet.

http://www.newenglandreptile.com/genetics_intro.html

I was told to check this link out to help iron out this topic a little more. Thought it might be helpful to some others.