Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When i buy a snake and the seller tells me its a 100% HET, then how can i find out for sure it really is?

greats,

michiel

Buying "het" for anything is all about trust and/or reputation.
For most traits, there is NO way for you to know unless/until you breed the animal. The breeder can know, based on what was bred, that an animal is 100% het (which simply means that the breeder is 100% sure that it IS het), but you have to take his or her word for it. So...Buy from a reputable dealer whenever possible, and don't pay an arm and a leg for a rare "het" trait unless the dealer's reputation is worth...well.....the money you are forking out. Duffy

thanks for the info

AND.... considering the advice given in the other response, also consider that you (assuming you're not a well known breeder with a good reputation) should not gear toward producing a large number of hets yourself. You will find them more difficult to sell as hets.

im not a breeder, this is just a hobby for me and im still on my way learning.

First of all, if the trait you are considering is recessive (amelanism, axanthism, etc) the hets are unrecognizable as such.

Therefore the only basis you have to know if the animal is a het is to trust the breeder. Generally that isn't a problem as most breeders are reputable.

However, there is another ugly issue that comes in here - many new breeders don't have a clue about how inheritance of traits works and so because they don't understand basic Mendelian genetics, they don't really understand what the possible outcomes particular matings will be.

How do you know? Talk to the breeder to establish the thoroughness of their understanding of inheritance. It is always wise to ask about the phenotype/genotype of the parents.

Furthermore, be wary of snakes that are "heterozygous" for unproven traits. It amazes me how often someone finds/buys an unusual morph and then assumes that if they mate this to a normal animal the offspring will be heterozygous for that character.
This is only true if -

1. the trait is heritable. Some traits (such as striping in some snakes) are not.

2. the inheritance is simple. The character could be controlled by multiple loci, or some more complex controlling factor such as an epistatic interaction.

For proven traits with reputable breeders, you are safe. Otherwise, buyer beware.
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Chris Harrison

looks like i have a long way to go

thanks for the great advice

greats,

michiel