Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First of all, can anyone explain to me exactly how the Motley gene works? I bred a Motley to a normal and it seems that half the babies came out with a weak Motley pattern but definitely visible compared to the other half of the clutch. Also, is it compatible with all the stripe genes? What would the results be of breeding a Motley to a stripe?

My other question is easy. When you breed two true creamsicles together do you get all creamsicles?

Thanks for your help.

I have a pair of het motley butters, and they have really clean patterns, with a HINT of motley in them. This is just a side effect from the selective breeding of the motley lines though. Motley is a regular rececessive gene. With both genes, the motley pattern will really show up.

Motley and stripe are separate genes, so you should theoretically be able to join them, but I don't know what the results would be.

I'm pretty sure 2 creamsicles will produce all creamsicles. If anything, it will depend on the line they were produced from. Are they pure corns, or do they have Gray ratsnake blood in them too?
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Herp Haven

Are they pure corns, or do they have Gray ratsnake blood in them too?
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Creamsicles are, by definition, never pure Corns. It's the name for a Corn hybrid. They will always carry the blood of a different Rat Snake (which one, seems to vary these days).

I've done a little more research on the motley/stripe combination. It seems that motley and stripe are at the same gene location. Motley is one recessive type and stripe is another. You can only have one of each, not both of each. A snake with one motley gene and one striped gene can be either just motley, motley striped, or just striped. It depends on that particular gene pool as to which you will get more or less of.
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Herp Haven

Thanks.

Actually...

The motley and stripe genes are allelic (they share the same locus on the DNA strand), and it is entirely possible for an animal to have one copy of each gene at that locus.

However...

If an animal has the stripe and the motley gene (one each) at that locus, the animal must be a "motley-stripe" by definition. It may look more striped than motley...or more motely than striped, but if it actually has both genes, there is no way for the animal to be anything else but a "striped-motley."

Hope that helps some...
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

Over on the "other" site there is some really good info on Motleys. Read the details on the Motleys. It doesnt really answer your question, but its very informative info.
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1,0 snow
1,0 amel
1,0 texas corn
1,0 aney stripe motley
0,1 normal
0,1 charcoal
0,1 motley
1,1 oketee
0,1 tx rat
1,0 diadem
4,5 ball python
1,1 dumerils boa
1,1 columbian red tail boa
1,1 green iguana
1,0 leopard gecko
1,2 dogs
freezer full of mice & rats