Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, well let's just say I breed a 100% HET albino male to a normal female will 50% HETS come out? Also what is the average number of eggs to come out of a first time breeding female? Another question, let's say you breed to 100% HET for albinos and you get 8 eggs, will 4 albinos and the rest 100% HET albinos come out or 66% or, 50% or what is most likely to come out? One more question, a 03 female 100% HET albino ball, will she be breedable next year this year or what let's just say fed on.. 4-6 inch rats everyweek? Now let's say I fed her 2 adult mice every week (2 different questions). Thank you for any help.

From:Brent Allen email leosrule182@yahoo.com AIM/AOL albinoleodotcom phone 586-285-1689

Genetically speaking (don't know a better term to use) you will get 50% of the clutch het for albino, but this can very greatly. Look at people breeding pastel males (which are 100% het for super pastels) to normal females I have seen posts where the person gets one pastel out of five eggs and have seen where people get five pastels out of 6 eggs. There are no absolute guarantees that 50% are going to be het this is just the genetic average. If you breed two 100% hets together your average would be 50% albinos and the rest 66% probable hets. Again this is just a genetic average not a guarantee.

As for clutch size; from my experience this depends more on the weight of the female than the age. For the example you gave regarding feeding, I would say you are going to put more weight on her by feeding 4-6 inch rats than you will two mice. However the size and quantity you offer depends on the size of the snake, you need to adjust accordingly. You really want to get the female 1500 grams before you try and breed, if you have a 2003 female you should easily be able to get her up to size by the end of 2005 if she is feeding good. I have a few April 2003 females that will be ready this winter and I have a couple 2001 females that won't be ready until next winter, it just depends on how often they feed what they feed on and whether or not they go off food for extended periods.

George Knaack
GLK HERP
www.reptilenews.com

glk,

I noticed there was one error in your post. If you were to breed 100% hets together, you should get 25% albinos (not 50%), 50% hets, 25% normals. Since you can not decipher between normals and hets, then the "normal" appearing offspring will considered 66% het for albino.

One other thing that I think new people get confused about is percentage hets. When someone says 50% het for albino or 66% het for albino it is not the animal that has that percentage but the clutch it hatched in. Animals are either het or they are not, there is no inbetween. When someone says 50% het that means that there's a 50% chance that the animal is a het. There's also a 50% chance that it's a normal.

On average you would get 50% albinos from breeding an albino to a 100% het albino, the rest of the offspring would be 100% het for albino.

Oops,
George