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Hi, this may be a stupid question but what does 'het' mean when describing snakes. I hear things like 'het for snow' and '50% het' etc. Does this mean that the snake has genes possible to create colourful hybrids? What does all this mean? How would i know if my snake was het?

Thanks.

Het is short for heterozygous, meaning it has one dominant normal gene and one recessive gene usually for some phase or other abberancy. A 50% het for amelanism would mean there is a 50% chance the snake is het for amelanism. This "chance" results from situations, for example, where two hets are bred together. Some babies will appear amelanistic, if amelanism is the trait being bred for, some will appear normal but be hets, and some will appear normal and only carry normal genes. Since you can't tell the hets from the normals by looking at them, babies are marketed by percentages.
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Andy Maddox
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"Some things will never change. They just stand there looking backwards. Half-unconsious from the pain. They may seem rearranged. In the backwater swirling. There is something that'll never change-The Meat Puppets"

It's a little more complicated than that. If someone or something is heterozygous for a trait. It means they have 1 gene from 1 parent that can express that trait. In other words you would have 2 different genes of a trait. As opposed to homozygous in which case you would have the gene from both parents, or 2 identical genes for a trait. Then you have to figure out if the trait is recessive or dominant. With complete dominance, the phenotype is expressed whether the dominant allele is heterozygous or homozygous. With complete recessiveness the gene is expressed only when the genotype is homozygous recessive. (the recessive allele has no effect on the phenotype of the heterozygote.) I hope this helps in some way. I wish I could explain it better but it's been years since I've had a genetics course.

also, if you purchase a snake that is heterzygous for a trait. That doesn't mean that you are guaranteed offspring of that snake to have the trait. For example, if you cross a snake that is Aa for a trait with a snake that is AA for the trait, 50% of the offspring will be AA and 50% will be Aa. If the trait is recessive, none of the offspring will exhibit the trait but 50% will have the recessive gene. If you cross an Aa with an Aa. Then 50% will carry the recessive gene without expressing the trait, 25% will express the trait and 25% will be homozygous without the gene. In other words, 25% AA, 25% aa and 50% Aa. If you cross an animal that shows the trait, an aa, then 50% of offspring will show the trait, or be aa, and 50% will carry the gene but not exhibit the trait, or be Aa. It's a different story if the trait is dominant.

The above answers sound kinda confusing, don't they? It can be, but quite simply: Yes, "het" is short for heterozygous. It has one gene for one trait and one for another. Most of the traits we talk about here in snake land are recessive, so a "het" will often be a normal-colored snake that has a recessive gene for the trait in question. A snake either IS het or it ISN't, but when you say it's "66% het" that means there is a 66% chance that it IS. How do you know if your snake is het? Know the parents or breed the snake. If mom is albino and dad is not, and all the kids look "normal"...They are all het. If you breed a normal-looking snake to an albino and some of the offspring are albino...guess what? The normal-looking parent was het. I have a snake that, reportedly, is 66% het for albino. If (when?)I breed him to my albino female...THEN I get to find out if he IS het. And if some of the babies are albino? He's no longer 66% het, is he? Duffy