Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, we have 100% hets, 66% hets, and 50% hets. Is it really reasonable to have any additional possible het numbers/percentages? Too me, anything below a 50% het, from a reputable breeder, is just a normal. If you breed a 50% poss het albino male to a normal female, what do you sell the offspring as? Normals, improbable hets, really, really, really, really, long shot hets?? I am just asking the question. I have seen someone awhile back that had 10% poss hets for sale

Dave

1.0 Arabesque 100% Het Albino
1.1 Albinos, 100% Het Stripe
0.1 Albino, 50% Het Anery
0.1 Salmon, 66% Het Albino

I would call them 25% hets.
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Greg Holland
G&M HERPS
www.gmherps.com
gmherps@sbcglobal.net

OK, 25% hets, but ARE they really? Will one out of every four babies be hets? My point is, when one parent is a 100% het, you can genetically guess what the offspring will be. If only one parent is a possible het, and the other a normal, I would have a hard time calling it anything but a normal, "with a bonus," or something like that. To put a number, or percent on it, might be misleading, and someone might think that one out of every four babies will be het, which is not the case.

Dave

How can you tell witch 1 out of 4 is a het. Is it every 4th born

Atleast one of the parents would have to be 100% to put a percentage number on the babies. I would call the babies possible het's due to the fact that all of the bibies may not carry the het at all. There probably is a mathmatical way to determin the % but who would buy a .067% het LOL Later

-Dylan Keays
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True Redtails

The breeder who is gutsy enough to present this kind of marketing ploy is going to disappoint a lot of big-eyed dreamers, the probabilities are just so low. Anybody who buys a possible het that doesn't prove out could keep that information quiet and sell their offspring as 25% hets, I totally understand what you are saying, and I think it would be unwise from a long-term business perspective for breeders offer these long-shot poss. hets.
I wouldn't even consider doing it myself.
A possible het either is or is not a het, and so if a person has not taken the time to prove it out one way or another, then they, in my opinion, probably have something they are hiding and are hoping to place the burden of their own failed gamble on someone else's wallet.
I would neither buy nor sell animals marketed under such a farce.
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Jeremy J. Anderson
snakepimp.com
gemstatereptiles.com
Of course it's my opinion, I said it, didn't I?
Breeding season is always just around the corner....JOY!!!

my opinion would be that breeders should be OK to advertise their boas as XX%, as long as they are informing the buyer that this means the boas is pretty much a normal - but does still have a wee tiny bitty speck of a chance to be a true HET..

Patrick

I'll start with a little genetics so that you may understand. First to get a 100% heterozygous animal you have to breed a homozygous (albino or some other morph) animal to anything and all the normal (wild type) will be 100% hets. When you breed 2 100% hets together all the normal's are 66% hets (this is the start of where it might get confusing). When you breed a 100% het to a normal half of the baby's should be het's that's where you get 50%er's. Now to get to what you are referring to when you breed two 66%er's together (or a 50%er to a normal) and you get all normal's that means one or both of your 66%er's is not het, Now one may still be het but you will have to do some more work to find out if one is a het or not but you still have these baby's from this breeding and if one of your animals is a het 50% of the baby's will be het's but you don't know yet so you have a choice to make you could sell them as normal's and just wait to prove the parents out or you could market them as possible possible hets (or some people use the term 25%er's I don't like this because it really creates confusion because some people think that 1 in 4 are het's and this is far from the true). The term Poss Poss het fits better because half of them still have a chance of being het's because one of the parents could still be a het. The problem is that they could also be normal's because both parents could also be normal the only way to prove out a possible het (when I say this I mean after you have tried the possible to possible breeding and it failed to prove out my opinion is this is the next step) is to work with a known 100% het or a homozygous animal. The possible's are a cheaper way to get a morph and it does work as we proved out a possible double het for snow this year which was very cool. Back to these poss poss het's I believe in them but I don't find them to have any value as far as a higher price in the market I think they should be priced as a normal but could be marketed as what they are this should help them sell. I think if you trust the breeder you could give them a try. The best thing to do is educate your self with genetics and once you have a good grasp of it this will all become clear Ralph Davis wrote a couple of papers that explain this in laymen terms in more detail and you can find them on his web site in the section named matrix and they are listed as "hets what are they" parts one and two and " poss hets how to cash in" you can find a link to his site at the top of the forum in the sponsor section I hope this helps thanks for reading Scott Mid Atlantic Morphs

>OK, we have 100% hets, 66% hets, and 50% hets. Is it really reasonable to have any additional possible het numbers/percentages? Too me, anything below a 50% het, from a reputable breeder, is just a normal.

Once I proved out a heterozygous pied ringneck dove three generations down from the nearest heterozygous pied. But it was sheer chance. IMHO, pricing for the offspring of a 50% probability het x normal mating should be the same as for normals.

100% het = het. Stamp out and eliminate redundancy.

Paul Hollander

I agree the term 100% het is redundant but I actually prefer it so there is no question and emphasize the fact that a given animal is a definite het and not XX% possible. When paying top dollar I myself kind of like the reassurance. If down the road an animal does not prove out the seller can't say they sold it as a possible het because that 100% before the word het eliminates any "possible" confusion lol. IMHO leaving it out can do more harm than good.