Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I thought that when you bred two tiger retics together you got 100% super tigers.
This is not the case.
There were 4 supers, 8 tigers and 4 normal looking retics in the clutch.
Please, someone explain these genetics to me.
Thanks, Karen

The best way to think of tigers is to equate them with something a bit easier to understand. Tigers are "visible" hets for super. What happens when you breed two het albinos to each other? A simple Punnet's square tells you that you will get 25% albinos, 50% hets, and 25% normals (we combine the normals and hets, since they can not be distinguished, and say each normal looking animal is 66% possible het). With the tigers, we don't have to worry about possibilities, since if a retic is "het for super" it is a tiger. Now, equate tiger like it is het for albino. Two tigers breeding will produce 25% supers, 50% tigers, and 25% normals.

If all that has done nothing but confuse you further, or if you are more of a visual person, you probably know that when writing out genetics to see what you get when you cross animals, you use simple two letter combinations. Normal animals could be written as AA, het albinos as Aa, and albinos as aa. In that same breath, normal retics could be written as TT, tigers as Tt, and supertigers as tt. Draw out a Punnet's square (if you don't know what that is, a quick search on Google should help, they are very simple to learn) with various combinations and see what you get. What happens when you breed an albino snake to a normal? All babies are hets. So what happens when you breed a supertiger to a normal retic? All babies are tigers. Etc etc, I imagine you are getting the drift by now.

I hope this was of some help to you an at least slightly coherent, being that it's 2 am. Sounds like what you got was dead on, excellent job! Now post some pics!
-Chance

Okay, here's a pix, that is if it works. I'm having trouble posting pixs.

Another question, the normal retics are just that, normals?

Karen

Yes, the normals are just normals.
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1.0 Albino Green Burm
0.2 Normal Burm
1.1 Java Retic

wouldnt the normals be tiger hets?
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-echo-

No, the normals would be only normals. A tigers are the heterozygous form of the super tiger gene. A tiger, is really a het for super tiger. This is called a co-dominant triat. If someone tries to sell you a normal, het for tiger, they are taking your money.
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1.0 Albino Green Burm
0.2 Normal Burm
1.1 Java Retic

genetics are so confuseing... bah
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-echo-

I am not sure but i think it is 75 percent tigers and 25 percent super tigers. than i believe it is 50/50 if you breed a super tiger to a tiger.