Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I've been very curious for a while now; what was the key to Ralph Davis producing platty's? I have looked all over and can't find any info about it. I know he has finally reproduced them and he talks about breeding het platty's in his breeding record on his site, but as far as I can tell they are not lesser platinums. So does anybody know how he produced them, and what a het platinum is?

lesser sib from a platty daddy breeding

essentially its a "hidden gene" that reacts with the lesser gene
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www.bamreptiles.webs.com
www.facebook.com/bamreptiles

In order to get a Platinum or Platty Daddy you need a Platty Daddy "Sib" which looks completely normal but carries the gene to make a Platty Daddy. When you breed Platty Daddy "Sib" to a Lesser you make a Platty Daddy. Hope that helps.
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Sloan Reptiles
www.sloanreptiles.net

Basically think of the Platy as a combo of two copies of a lesser complex mutation just like mystic potion (mystic and mojave), crystal (special and mojave), or one of the blue eyed leucistic combos like mocha and Vin Russo. The only really odd thing about the Platy is that one of the alleles of the lesser complex in that combo is so subtle its reported to look completely normal. Because it looks normal it's been hard to pin down a good name for but I've heard "hidden", "platy sib", and "dilute". I guess it does get a little weirder because apparently even the homozygous hidden looks normal. But try to think of it as just a really subtle member of the lesser complex and you see why a combo like Platy produces only hidden and lessers when bred to a normal and no Platy and why a lesser can't carry hidden without being a Platy.

Alright, that makes sense... Thanks guys. Ball python genetics are so fascinating to me. There are so many different facets, and unique qualities in ball morphs that you don't see in any other designer species. I just can't get enough of this stuff.