Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Over the weekend i went to a reptile expo and questioned a breeder about breeding snow to snow. They informed me that breeding snow to snow doesn't mean you will get a snow because of it being recessive. Can someone shine some light on this.

from my understanding unless you are talking about the mac snow it is a line bred trait like putting two tang leos together your going to get tang to one degree or another. but im not a gene knowing person, lol so keep asking.

Well lets see if I can make sense.

First off, it all depends on the genotype of the lizards in question. I dont have alot of experience with the "snow" trait but if the breeder at the reptile show is correct and snow is a recessive trait, and the 2 animals should have that phenotype(are snow) then there genotype would be homozygous recessive. Meaning all the babies would be snow.

However, if the 2 animals you wish to breed are heterozygous (normal color but from parents with some of the traits) then there is usually a 3:1 ratio. Meaning in theory 25% of the offspring would be snow.

I would have to know more about the animals in question to tell you more...and the only really definitive way is the do a DNA test which usually isnt reasonable, or breeding to see if what the offspring are.

Please anyone feel free to correct me if I have errored in my genetic explanation.

Chris
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0.0.2 Gila Monsters
1.2 KSB
1.0 Leopard Gecko -Dudly
1.0 Pacman Frog- Frigity
1.1 Rats -Killer(albino)- Twitch (babies are dinner)hehe

In various snakes, snow is the combination of two independent recessive mutant genes, albino (amelanistic) and anerythristic (axanthic). The albino mutant gene prevents black pigment from forming, and the axanthic mutant gene prevents yellow pigment from forming. If snow works the same way in leopard geckos, then snow x snow should produce all snows. However, if one snow includes the tremper albino mutant gene, and the other snow is made from a different albino mutant gene, then snow x snow would not produce any snows.

Hope this helps. Sorry I'm not better informed on leopard gecko mutant genes.

Paul Hollander

There are two types of Snow, snow and supper snow. You can tell the difference with the eyes. Snow has grey eyes like a normal, and a super snow has black eyes. For breeding snows, you'd need another snow, but for super snow, you can breed them to a normal and the babies would have some snow. The super snow is line bred i think.
anyway i hope this helps
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- Melanie

2.0 cats
1.0 leopard gecko
1.0 Bernese mountain dog
2.1 red ear sliders
0.0.1 emperor scorpion
1 south american cichlid tank
2 planted tanks with dwarf cichlids and platies

Thanks for the info! It's much appreciated.

So the gecko people have gone off in a different direction from the snake people. I must swot up on the various morphs and conventions.

Paul Hollander

there is a big dif between snake snows and leos, other than the
mac co dom snows all other snows that i know of are a simple case of breeding leos that show white to leos who show white, then taking the best babies and breeding them together, or back to the parents. I am not a snow expert but from what ive read and the animals ive seen, snows are white gecko to one extreme or the other, the mac snows r a dif type of thing, like the giant gene but white not giant.

basically- the mack 'super' snows have black eyes, have a striped pattern, a white background, and have strange, minute spotting on their chins. people have mentioned that their offspring are somewhat snow-ish (meaning, their heterozygous offspring), but they are much less snow-looking to me than geckoes which have been selectively bred for snow (the old-fashioned way). also, i have never seen a heterozygous one that was the product of a tangerine and a mack super- i think that would answer the question as to whether the super trait is truly codominant (meaning, that het offspring show it somewhat, instead of looking completely normal).
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marla
currently: 0.0.9 catfish, 0.1 ferrets, 2.8.3 leopard geckoes, 0.0.13 oriental fire-bellied toads, and 0.2.0 sugar gliders

the breeder was either specifically talking about the new 'mack snow,' or didn't know what they were talking about. the old-school snow (which is what i am working with) is just a selectively bred trait, like being hypo or melanistic. though what the breeder said about it not guaranteeing snow offspring is true. coloration is controlled by many genes (when you're not talking about a simple mendelian trait), and also changes with age. so working with snows is very difficult. it's like breeding two baldies together doesn't guarantee baldy offspring, though you may get lots, and you may get some with even less spotting. see what i mean?
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marla
currently: 0.0.9 catfish, 0.1 ferrets, 2.8.3 leopard geckoes, 0.0.13 oriental fire-bellied toads, and 0.2.0 sugar gliders