Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anybody know of any books or any thing that could explain how to get a visable morph form a het. i'm kinda new to the morph game and wanting to get into it for i can add color to my collection.
Thanks,
Kevin

Depends on what species you are interested in.

For corn snakes, Serpwidgets' web site is the best. It also has a link to the Corn Snake Morph Guide. On the other hand, Serpwidgets' site is weak in several areas, including dominant mutant genes. Of course, all the common mutant genes in corn snakes are recessives.

As far as I know, there is nothing remotely comparable to the CSMG for any other herp.

For learning genetics, your best bet is Elrod and Stansfield's book, Schaum's Introduction to Genetics. It is hard to beat on price/quality. Used paperback copies of the 4th (2002) edition are going for around $8 now, and I like the problem oriented format.

The principles of genetics are the same for mice, maize, corn snakes, leopard geckos, etc. etc. Learn standard genetics first from a good text, and then learn the mutant genes in your species of choice. Most of the herper web sites with genetics pages range from misleading to downright dangerous to your mental health. For what it's worth, I learned genetics from a university course followed by several years working in the university genetics lab.

Hope this helps.

Paul Hollander
Serpwidgets' corn snake genetics tutorial

i wanting to know about ball python genetics. I wnating to know all the steps in how to get an expressive out of a het.
thanks,
Kevin

>i wanting to know about ball python genetics. I wnating to know all the steps in how to get an expressive out of a het.

If the mutant gene is dominant or codominant to the normal version of the gene, then the heterozygote already shows the effect of the mutant gene. Example -- pastel and spider in the ball python.

If the mutant gene is recessive to the normal version of the gene, like albino in the ball python, then the heterozygote looks normal. Only the homozygote (which has a pair of the mutant genes) shows the effect of the mutant gene. Both parents must contribute a copy of the mutant gene to produce a homozygous baby. In other words, to get a homozygous baby, either both parents are heterozygous for the mutant gene, both parents are homozygous for the mutant gene, or one parent is homozygous and the other parent is heterozygous for the mutant gene.

If you start with only one snake that is heterozygous for a recessive mutant gene, then the heterozygote is mated to one or more normal snakes. Some of the babies are also heterozygous. The possible heterozygotes are mated to a known heterozygote or homozygote, and 20 babies are produced from each possible. Eventually one of the possible heterozygotes will become a known heterozygote by producing a baby homozygote.

Clear as mud?

As I wrote before, the principles of genetics are essentially the same even though the species are different. The breeding results are exactly the same for amelanistic, a recessive mutant gene in the corn snake, and for albino, a recessive mutant gene in the ball python. So if you learn to handle recessive mutant genes in the corn snake from Serpwidgets' genetics tutorial, you will also learn how to handle recessive mutant genes in the ball python.

Paul Hollander

thanks that helped. if i got it right from what you said and what i got out of a Biology book from school all i would have to do is breed a 100% het to a normal and then breed one of the offspring back to the parent. right?
Thanks for your help,
Kevin

Get a male heterozygote, breed him to a normal, and then breed him to all his daughters. You could use a female heterozygote, but then you could only breed her to one of her sons.

If you keep and breed only one baby from the first generation, you may accidentally pick a genetically normal individual. Raising and breeding several daughters raises your chances of getting at least one heterozygote. Don't give up on a possible heterozygote until you get 17 normal babies without any albinos.

Good luck.

Paul Hollander

Thanks for the info on Serpwidgets. It was very informative and interesting.
Thanks,
William