Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've noticed that many breeders seem to focus more on homozygous x heterozygous rather than homozygous x homozygous. This is even observed with some larger breeders. It seems to me that homozygous offspring would command more money than various heterozygous animals, so I'm trying to figure this out.

Why do I see so many homozygous males bred to heterozygous females?

Surely the larger breeders can afford all homozygous females, so why all the homozygous x heterozygous breedings?

My theory is that many customers can not afford homozygous animals, so a healthy inventory of heterozygous animals is essential. But why not still breed homozygous x homozygous while adding a few Normal females into the mix? Is this too much stress on a breeding homozygous male?

So again...Why do I see so many homozygous males bred to heterozygous females?

Thanks In Advance,
Chris
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"You ever heard of those? They're called parents. We have parents who love us. You don't 'cause you're a little orphan." -- Roy O'Bannon

I have heard of a couple of breeders doing homo to homo. I wouldnt use my homo females for anything but double het projects......

If you breed two albinos together you get offspring that are worth $2500..... if you breed that same female albino to a clown you get babies that are worth at least twice as much.

Het females are used to get more of a particular morph. Homo females are used to make new morphs.

Hope this helps

Raul

Is this a typical theory among breeders?

Good Things,
Chris
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"You ever heard of those? They're called parents. We have parents who love us. You don't 'cause you're a little orphan." -- Roy O'Bannon

Good point Raul!

Another factor might be that there are more breeder sized het females. It takes a long time to grow a female up to breeder size. A new recessive morph starts out by making hets. If the original imported homozygous animals where males they might have made a lot of hets. These het females have a few years head start on the first few homozygous females. Once they have those het females grown up perhaps they would prefer to sell the homozygous baby girls for cash rather than spending years growing them up to replace the big heterozygous girls they already have.

I am a little concerned by the small number of breeder pied females I've seen posts of but I have heard of at least two (the one Kahl used to prove the morph and one that produced for VPI) so it's probably just the amount of time that it takes to get a homozygous pied female grown up and bred compared to the relatively short time the morph has been produced in captivity.