Well, you certainly got your point across. I am very involved with the breeding of Corn Snakes and proving out their genetics. When I decided to get into Dragons, I was amazed at how little most Dragon people know about their Dragons genetically. Nobody could give me the answers that I was use to in the Corn Snake, Boa and Ball Worlds. You must have never seen a Translucent or Clear Nail Hypo. They are obviously true mutations. The Clear Nails have very distinctive opaque bluish/purple colorations in place of the dark pigment, just like in other hypo reptiles and clear nails. The Translucents are obviously missing something. Most believe it is their white coloration or what ever causes the white in Dragons.
There are some very obvious mutant genes in Dragons, contrary to what you believe. One of the biggest areas of my confusion was the hypomelanistic Dragons. There definitely are a few hypo genes in Dragons. Some people try to say that the Clear Nails are the only “True” Hypo gene which is a crock. In Corn Snakes we have four hypo genes that have been proven to be incompatible. They are all hypo genes. We also have four different anerythristic type genes that are proven to be completely different genetically.
It seems extremely likely that there are multiple hypo gene in Dragons. The Snows and Hypo, may be one and the same thing. The Clear Nails is a hypo gene that seems to be different than the Snows. The problem in Dragons is that the genes have been very mixed up and breeding results are very inconclusive. It is also very possible that there are anery genes in Dragons and a Snow may very well be homo for Anery and hypo, and the Marketed Leucistics be homo for Anery and Clear nail or something to that effect.
You are totally right about the Leucistic Dragons. The name is incorrectly being used and it should stop immediately. There are just too many leucistic mutations in other reptiles that are constantly pure white with no pattern at all, to even begin to think that the “Marketed” Leucistics are the same type of mutation. They are nothing more than a new hypo Dragon that is very likely different than the previous hypo type genes.
I do understand your point about selective breeding that can definitely change a Dragons color to red or yellow or much lighter in coloration, but it is also possible and very likely that there are some co-dominant genes at work in the extreme reds and yellow dragons that we see. Some of the lighter Dragons or even some of the hypo ones could actually be co-dominant rather than recessive. A co-dominant gene is a mutation just like recessive genes are, but are inherited differently.
Generally, with a co-dominant color mutation, there is a lot of selective breeding that goes along with the gene. It does seem as if, many of the colors in Dragons have more to them than just selective breeding. I have seen clutch mates that are clearly only yellow or only red. I am sure this is possible with normal genes when mixing a yellow and red Dragon together, but the separation is very distinct and does seem to have more to it than you think. IF some of the yellows and reds are co-dominant, if you bred a het red/yellow x same together, your would get some yellow, red, normal and some “Super” Reds and “Super Yellows. These last two would be homo for the two mutations. The problem with co-dominant genes is they are co- dominant to normal and the het offspring can vary from almost normal to almost mutant looking. It is very difficult to determine if we are just talking about normal selective breeding of normal genes or a mutant co-dominant gene.
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Joe Pierce
Snakes Alive!
"Home of the guaranteed feeders"
"If it won't eat, it is not worth a dime!"
