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Visible Hets?

rusticreptiles

rusticreptiles

New member
Okay, I got some good replies with my last post and I have one more unrelated question that I hope to have the same success with.

In the reading I've done, most state that it is technically impossible to visually see if your corn is or is not het for a morph.

I purchased two stripes 66% het butter at an expo and the seller was telling me they could tell the het ones from the non hets. There were indeed some that displayed brighter colors and more yellow and I did select two of those individuals, but is it possible to really "know" just by looking at them?
I will be breeding them together and will find out then, but for now I wanted to find out if there is any truth to "seeing het" in some snakes.

I also have a friend that has a butter het motley and was told you can visably see that the motley trait is there. I haven't seen it yet, but am skeptical. I've also heard with BP's that the "pied markers" are not always reliable so just confused as to why some say yes and other no. Which is it?

Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Thanks a bunch.

Nicole
 
There are a few supposed "het markers", but none of them are 100% accurate. You could use them to help select the potential keepers from a clutch, but it is still a gamble. I have personally seen known het caramels that show and do not show the increased yellow hue to their over-all coloration. I have also personally seen known het bloodreds that show and do not show the skull head pattern and the split belly checks (check out the masque gene). I have produced a couple of clutches where the hatchlings were het Sunkissed and possibly het motley and some of those hatchlings had partial plain bellies. Whether those were the ones that had inherited the motley gene or not, I don't have a clue. And I recall seeing a couple of possible or known het motleys have a partial plain belly that were not het Sunkissed (known het Sunkissed anyway). So basically, if you're working with possible hets, het markers MAY help you increase your odds, but don't put any money on them.
 
Thank you Susan. That is what I was thinking, but being new didn't know if maybe there were some tricks to the trade that I wasn't aware of yet. I will keep all this in mind for future purchases. :)
 
Nothing but anecdotal evidence, but the amels het butter I produced in '08 have been much more yellow than their non-het siblings. The females wont be ready until this year, so I will have a chance to prove the rest out, providing ones outside of my collection are bred to butters. So far, the yellow amels have been het butter and the more standard looking ones were not. This will only be a sample size of 9 animals, so is far from conclusive, but it's made me think there might be something to it.
 
I've been wondering if my amel is het motley- since his sister is motley- and he has almost no checks on his belly.

I was wondering if the lack of belly checks was a sign of being het motley or just a coincidence. I hopefully will find that out this spring through breeding trials.
 
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