Reptile & Amphibian Forums

okay just a quick few stupid questiosn real quick. i have seen a few snakes that are het stripe albino or het albino stripe. what is that? i have seen het albino and het stripe but what is het albino stripe? if it het for both? and if its that then what can it produce? like a het albino and a albino gets 50% albino and 50% het babies so what would a het stripe albino get with a albino? and also can someone clear up what double (dbl) het meens? i have been reading it but its in words for people that already know what it meens! haha thanks!

The Kahl line genetic stripe is a simple recessive trait that expresses itself in a variable way. Think of it the same as the albino trait; that is, het stripe x het stripe = 1/4 stripes and stripe x het stripe = 1/2 stripes. The only difference is that the animals that are striped, will show it to varying degrees, i.e. some will have bigger stripes than others.

Double het striped albino animals are normals that are het for both albinism and stripe. If you breed these animals together, you can get striped albinos - animals expressing both traits at once.

In the particular example you requested, which was albino x dh striped albino, you would would get 50% albinos and 50% het for albinos. All of these animals would also be 50% possible het for stripe.

Hope this helps,
Matt Crabe

Pic is of albino, 100% het for stripe.

well explained thanks. so if i breed albino and het stripe albino im not going to get any stripe albinos? just 50% albino and P het albino? and what does double het meen? whats the difference in double het than just het? what if i breed the het stripe albino with a albino het stripe, what will i get? thanks for the response and the pic too.

Double het stripe albino is a normal that is her for albino and het for stripe. It carries the genes for both.
Now, if you breed a dh striped albino to an albino het stripe, in a litter of 16 babies, you will get:

2 of 16 (12.5%) striped albinos
6 of 16 (37.5%) albino, 66% poss. het stripe
2 of 16 (12.5%) striped, het albino
6 of 16 (37.5%) het albino, 66% poss. het stripe

Here's how you get those numbers. First take the albino part of this breeding and ignore the stripe. So, het albino x albino gives 8 of 16 albinos and 8 of 16 het albinos. Now the stripe gene. Since it is a het x het breeding, only 1/4 of the babies will be striped. The rest will be 66% possible het for stripe. So, of the 8 of 16 albinos, 1/4 (or 2 of the 8) will be striped making them striped albinos.

I know this is confusing at first, but I hope this helps. If you still don't get it, keep asking. I'll be glad to try and explain it some more.

Matt Crabe

okay i get it for the most part. still dont know what double het and triple het are. but as for the 16 babies, when you have a albino and a striped albino, how do you actually tell the difference (other than the obvious of a big stripe on it). what if the stripe is not for sure a stripe? i guess im asking is, do the albinos that dont have the stripes, are they not stripe line even without stripes? like do they carry the same thing as the stripe ones? and the same with the stripe and normals that will be coming out, will the stripes be noticable on all of them? beause i know a stripe albino gota for alot more than a regular. so what is the deal with that? not sure if you can understand that i kind of lost myself in it sorry haha.

Okay, it is called a double het because it carries two different mutant genes. A double het (dh) striped albino carries the genes for albinism and striping. A double het for snow carries the genes for albinism and anerytherism (sp?). Now to confuse you a little more, the terms dh for sunglow and dh for ghost are used somewhat incorrectly. These terms describe a hypo het for albino and a hypo het for anery. Since the hypo trait is dominant, these terms aren't exactly accurate, but I believe they are used just for simplicity. So, a triple het would be a hypo that is also het for two other genetic traits (i.e. triple het striped sunglow or triple het hypo/snow).

Now, the stripe gene is a little funny compared to something like albinism. It acts in a simple recessive manner, just like the albino gene, but the animals that get the striped gene are variable. They can be anywhere from 20% to 100% striped. If it is questionable, the breeders will often sell the animal as het stripe since they are not sure. Both of the albino pics I posted are of animals that were sold to me as het stripe, however I believe that either of them could possible prove out to be striped albinos. The only way to prove them when they are so questionable is to breed them.

So, lets confuse you even more. When you breed the hypo gene into the stripe line, the hypo gene tends to bring the striping out in the het animals too. So, if you have hypos het for stripe, or striped hypos, they can be very difficult to tell apart. Here is a picture of a low striped female with a hypo het stripe. Even though the hypo has a stripe, he is just het for stripe since only one parent was a stripe and the other didn't carry the stripe gene at all.

Sorry if I lost you in all this. Please keep asking if you have more questions. I will do my best to answer them.

Matt

so would breeding the dh stripe albino i want to buy with a albino het stripe be the best thing to do? what if i were to breed it with a stripe het albino what would i get? or if i just were to breed it with albino?

The best thing you could do with the strpie and albino line so you get positives is this, Albino het stripe x stripe het albino. This way you will get P albino , P stripe , and every normal looking animal will be double het (het for 2 gene morphs) albino and stripe. Let me clear up what i said on top . These are the animals you will get albino het stripe, striped albino, striped het albino , normal het stripe and albino. Also don't forget paperwork on your animals , especialy with hets. If you buy something with a het make sure the breeder has and sends paperwork with it. If theres no paperwork you might be paying top dollor for a normal animal and make sure when you breed them you provide paperwork as well. Paper work should include what its het for name of breeder there phone number e-mail address web site and i always ask for a signature on it. If they refuse to sign it , it throws up a flag in my eyes , a photograph of the snake with the info, parents id numbers or names , feeding and shed cards. I threw in the bottom parts since you seem to be new to morphs and there are people out there that will burn you if they get a chance. Hope this helps Paul

okay is a stripe het albino the same as a het stripe albino? sorry stupid question but that should clear everything up for me. how much more do the albino het stripe go for than just an albino? are they like $1500-$2000? thanks for answering my other question, people are starting to be nice to me now :-D haha thanks

Just a quick question, in one of your posts below you said you have been wanting to breed for a while but didnt have the room, why didnt you start researching everything then instead of waiting till now? You get upset with some of the answers you get but I completly see where some of these breeders are coming from they had to do all the research and you expect them to just tell you what to do. All it takes is some reading and you can learn what makes what. When I first got into Bos I came on here and asked some of the same questions your asking and got some of the same responses, I thought I was going to just buy some morphs and start breeding but once I started reading and researching stuff for myself I realized there was alot more to it than just putting a male with a female and BOOM you got babies. You will get more out of it if you do your own research instead of expecting people to tell you how to do this or what makes that. You also need to realize that differnt breeders do differnt things what works for one might not work for others. Im not trying to be a jerk but in my opinion you have a long way to go before your ready to breed, but dont feel bad I myself still have alot of research to do before Ill be ready to breed. Theres just no easy way to jump in and start breeding boas.

ya i know i just get jumpy with things. ive been reading everything everyone has told me to and got a good way from there. the 1 thing im wondering is what temp to keep my boas at while not breeding (in the offseason i guess you would call it)? this way i can get some and since i am not ready yet i will just raise them until im ready. thanks!

I understand where your coming from, I to get jumpy and in a hurry to do things sometimes, but this is one thing thats best to take your time with and learn as much as possible. The temps I keep are 90-95 hot side and 80-85 ambient temps. Just take your time and read everything you can about boas it will amaze you how fast you will start to learn about them. Go to as many breeders sites as you can there is always good info on there sites sometimes you just have to look for it. As far as the genetics go it can get very confusing the best advice for that is to do what I did, I did a search on dogpile for genetics the site I went to wasnt snake related at all but it helped with alot of the terminology that I didnt understand before. Some of the different breeders have some good info on there sites about genetics as well. Good luck.

okay and for the heating, im going to get a space heater or somthing to heat the room up to the high 70's then i plan on doing heat panels. ive done UTH with my other boas but never planned on breeding them so didnt need any exact temp. so will a heat panel be able to make one side in the low 80's and one side in the high 80's low 90's or do they spread heat in to big of an area?