Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So when it comes to the piebald gene, is the high whiteness or low whiteness inheritable? Or is it totally just luck of the draw?

n/p

High white pieds produce pieds with more white, and low white pieds produce pieds with less white. It is definetly not luck entirely. Many times when buying het pieds pictures of the parents will tell you how white pieds descending from the hets will be.

You're wrong, it's random. I've been breeding pieds for 10 years and I have had high pieds produce low white and vice versa.

I believe high white pieds make high white pieds. low white pieds make low white pieds. Same goes for best looking snakes make the best looking snakes.

I made 2 high white pieds and bred high white pied male to het pied female and produced high white pieds.

...I believe you are right. My question is, do low whites that produce high whites (and vice versa) do that year after year? Or do they sometimes produce one, and the next season produce the other?(Low or High white that is)

its not that predictable with a random effect. Im sorry I dont see it as a 100% fact that high whites produce high whites and lows produce lows. I dont mess with pieds because of the randomness they have and how it can at some times ruin a good color/pattern morph.

Totally random...lows produce highs and highs produce lows...you can take 90% whites and get 5% every time...its the luck of the draw....it is genetic marker and not a trait.
Ask any large breeder that has been messing with Pieds since the day they were discovered.
Peter Kahl was the first back in 1997 and the description is as follows: Quote from "World of Ball Python Morphs"

"Piebald - Piebald is a recessive trait that is partially un-pigmented with variable color and pattern mutations. Piebalds express an unusual cloud-like pattern unseen in any other base-morph. The amount of white is not indicative of its parents’ color. For instance, a 90% white piebald bred with a 90% piebald, may not produce 90% white offspring. The amount of white is typically a random occurrence. Pieds are a color and pattern mutation with an aberrant body pattern while the head is typically normal looking. Although some have confused ringers with pieds, there are some distinct differences."

Quote from Tony Gude

Travis
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LAIR OF DRAGONS

Last year I bred a 90% white male with a 15-20% white female and got and got a mixture of pieds ranging from 0% white pieds up to about 30% white. I bred him the year before to a female pied that is about 75%-80% white and got babies from very low white to medium white.