Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just curious about something... First off, If I breed a blizzard X Blizzard will I get 100% Blizzards? Also say I breed blizzard X Butter, and say they have 12 eggs/baby corns, Would I get like 4 butter, 4 blizzard and 8 "whatever"? also does anyone know what the "whatever" would be? Thanks for your time, I understand just the bare minimum of corn breeding.

You're getting there.

Blizzard x Blizzard will give you all Blizzards.

Blizzard x Butter will give you all Amels, with hets for Charcoal & Caramel.

A Blizzard is a combination of Amel and Charcoal (Anery B). A Butter is a combination of Amel and Caramel. This is why the Amel will be dominant in the offspring.

There are some really good predictor software freebies about - sure folks can diret you to some.

Good luck!

Ok, there is something I don't understand about snake breeding... Say you go with Blizzard X Blizzard. so your breeding 2 sets of charcoal and anery genes together... Why will you get 100% Blizzard instead of like 45% charcoal, 45% anery and 10% blizzard offspring? Just curious because it strikes me as odd....

Both amelanism and charcoal are controlled by recessive genes. A recessive gene is one that, when paired at the same location on the DNA strand with a dominant gene (like the normal, wild-type), will not be seen in the animal at all.

Let me explain:

At each point (locus) along the DNA strand, you can find two genes paired together. Those two genes work together to control something about your snake, and each point controls a different aspect. If the two genes at one locus are identicle to one another, we say that the animal is homozygous for that gene (the Greek word "homos" means "another of the same kind". If the two genes are different from one another, then we say that the animal is heterozygous ("het" for short) for that gene (the Greek word "heteros" means "another of a different kind".

If an animal does not carry the gene for amelanism, it looks completely normal, and its genetics are completely normal as well (in relation to amelanism, that is).

Because amelanism is recessive to the wild-type for coloration, when an animal is "het" for amel, the snake will look completely normal, even though the animal has one copy of the gene at that locus of the DNA, and it also has the wild-type gene at that locus too.

If an animal has two amelanistic genes at the same locus, it will be an amel, and its genetics HAVE to be amel for both positions in the locus. If they weren't BOTH amel genes there, then the animal would only be het for amel, and it would outwardly appear normal. All amels are homozygous for the amel gene...they ONLY have mutation genetics (amel) at that locus of the DNA.

We represent these scenarios like this:

AA = Wild type, normal
aA = Wild-type, het for amelanism
aa = Amelanistic

So, if you have an amel, you KNOW it only has (aa) at the amel determining locus. If you have two amels, you KNOW that about BOTH of them. So, if you breed those two animals together, when they produce offspring, each parent donates a copy of ONE gene from each locus. Since, at the amel locus, the two amel parents ONLY have amel genes, we KNOW that they can ONLY donate amel genes to their offspring. Since the offspring can ONLY get amel genes from their parents, they will ALL be amel babies.

Breeding a normal to an amel will get you ALL normals, het for amel, because the normal parent can ONLY give a normal gene (A), and the amel can ONLY give an amel gene (a). So ALL the babies will have (aA) in their genetic makeup.

Breeding two het animals (aA) together will allow each parent to give half of the offspring the amel gene (a) and half of them the normal gene (A). However, since each parent gives those gene possibilities randomly, the actual expected breakdown is this:

25% (AA) normal babies not het for amel
50% (aA) normals, het for amel
25% (aa) amels

Since the same thing is true for charcoal as it is for amel as outlined above (only at a different locus), you can do the same thing with that gene and come up with the same percentages.

Now, in a blizzard, what you have is an animal that is homozygous for BOTH amel and charcoal. It HAS to be homozygous for those genes, because BOTH of them are recessive, and if it wasn't homozygous for them, it would not be showing as a blizzard. If you have two blizzards, BOTH of them are homozygous for BOTH amel and charcoal, so when they produce offspring, they can ONLY give the babies amel and charcoal genes at those locations on the DNA strand. So, we can KNOW that all babies produced by two blizzard parents HAVE TO BE 100% blizzards.

Whew!

I know that's probably more information than you wanted, but there really isn't an easy way to answer it, without giving you some of the genetics background too. You might want to check out some sites that deal specifically with genetics to get all of the details down pat. I would suggest Serpwidget's site as a good starting place.
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

You had to get tired typing all of that. I got tired reading it...LOL
very informative post.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"resistance is futile"
Jimmy (draybar)

Draybars Snakes

You're just as wordy as me...only you talk in pictures!

Now, if you go by the adage that a picture is worth 1,000 words, well...I could type from now till next Wednesday and not catch up to some of YOUR posts!!!

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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

Wow, that is truly the whole bag of potatoe chips... But thank you fo taking the time. Honestly you could have just said that one trait is dominant and one is recessive That is the factor I forgot to add... stupid of me. Are there some snakes where if you bred the same type of snake that there would be diferent morph offspring? As in maybe both different types f snakes carry a hidden dominant trait for something or soforth so the snake looks nothing like mom and dad...? or is the snake always going to look like the parents (as long as the parents are the exact same morph)

I almost typed in just that much and then thought, "Well, this person may not know about medelian genetics, and even if so, the next person who reads it may not." So, there you go.

As to your other question, yes, it is possible to breed two animals together and not get offspring of the same morph. But, that can only happen if BOTH parents are het for the same gene. Two amels, both het for anery, will produce 25% snows, statistically speaking.

There is one exception to this rule, that I know. The zig-zag, aztec, or whatever you may call it, pattern "morph" does not seem to follow simple mendelian genetics in relation to predictability in offspring. So, you can breed two aztecs together and get a completely normal looking baby. Likewise, you can breed apparently normal looking adults together and get aztecs. As far as I know, no one knows why this is.

Hope that helps...at least it's shorter!!!

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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742