Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My friend and I are starting our breeding fun and can't agree over a few genetics questions. First, if you breed two dominant genes, does the offspring become Het for either. E.g. if we breed a Pastel to a normal would that produce Het pastel. Second, do you guys have some suggested reading on genetics for morphs. We have One Normal, (0.1) Three 66% Het Albino (1.2), one Albino (1.0),and One Pastel (1.0). We are looking to put together about 5 or 6 pairs. Any suggestion on what to put together. We have been thinking about pairing up some pastels as well. This will our first season in the winter. Let us know what you think. Thanks
Stephen Eastridge

There is no way to get "hets" when talking about dominant or codom morphs. All normal babies will be plain normals and het for nothing and have no genetic relation to the pastel gene (but may take on some different coloration or shades depending on the parents). The pastels will be pastels and normals will be just normals. The only way to get a "heterozygous" animal is by breeding simple recessive traits. If this does not confuse you more, some people refer to say a mojave (codom) as the visual "heterozygous" form of the homozygous super mojave. They are not "hets" per se, but that is a good way of thinking about it.

If you breed a simple recessive "het albino" to a normal you get half "hets"... though you do not know visually which are the hets and which are not (thats how you get poss hets) The beauty about codoms is that the heterozygous form has a visual marker attached to it and this way when you breed a mojave to a normal (het to normal) you get half mojaves (hets) and half normals.

Hope that made some sense.

Jeremy Thompson
Captive Born Investments Inc.

Thank you, that makes a large amount of sense. It was the way were thinking, but couldn't too much to help us verify it. Thanks

All gene pairs are either homozygous or heterozygous.

Homozygous = the two genes in the pair are the same.
Heterozygous = the two genes in the pair are NOT the same.
Note that there is no requirement about appearance in these definitions.

A pastel ball python has a pastel mutant gene paired with a normal gene. These two genes are not the same, which makes the gene pair heterozygous. Therefore, a pastel ball python is a het pastel even though it does not look normal.

All hets look normal is a mistaken belief. It is a holdover from the times when all known mutant genes in snakes were recessive to the appropriate normal gene. Those days are long over, but the mistake lives on.

Pastel (AKA het pastel) x normal -->
1/2 pastel (pastel mutant gene paired with normal gene; het pastel)
1/2 normal (two normal genes; homozygous normal)
(Fractions are odds of an outcome per egg, not per litter.)

Of the snakes you have, I'd recommend the albino male to a het albino female, the het albino male to a het albino female, and the pastel male to the normal female. Or the albino to both het albino females and hold the het albino male in reserve. Your choice.

There are so many nice looking ball pythons that I hesitate to suggest any. Look around and see what you like.

Pritzel's Genetics for Herpers would be my first recommendation for a book. http://www.geneticsforherpers.com/

Good luck.

Paul Hollander

these are my 2 fave sites for genetics and any questions

http://www.ballpython.ca/genetics.html
essentially it's a "genetics for dummies" it's so clearly explained

http://www.worldofballpythons.com/wizard/
you can pick what each parents genetics on this page and it will tell you the percent of what the egg can be

enjoy
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1.0 firefly(pos het pied) 1.0 enchi 0.1 bumblebee 0.1 mojave 0.1 butter pastel 0.1 pastel 0.7 normals

You should see it as this instead.

Heterozygous : 1 allele of the pair
Homozygous : 2 allele

Albino is the homozygous form
The Super pastel is also an homozygous form.

The difference is that a het super pastel have a color to it, while a het albino looks like a normal.

Take a look at this :
http://www.ballpython.ca/genetics.html

Recessive : http://www.ballpython.ca/what_get/recessive.html
Codom : http://www.ballpython.ca/what_get/co_dominant.html
Dom : http://www.ballpython.ca/what_get/dominant.html
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love this world, don't hate it.