What are your opinions on hets?

[JPerkins]

Are hets worth the the gamble and are het babies hard to sell? I am not knocking hets at all I am just wanting people with more het /snake breeding experience opinions. Thanks for reading and taking the time to respond.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Hets are not a gamble, possible hets are. I never had any issue selling hets.


Now possible hets are a gamble but sometimes it is worth it especially when you are holding back your own animals

Proved out 3 possible females so far this year and I think it was worth it.

[Rob]

100% Hets aren't a gamble. The breeder you buy one from would be the gamble. Do your homework and buy from someone with a good track record and you have nothing to worry about. Plenty of good people on here.

[Tigerhawk]

I agree if you know and trust the breeder, you should be just fine.

[rlditmars]

As everyone above stated, 100% hets are not a gamble as long as the source is trustworty. The other possible hets ar 50% where you breead a 100% het to a non het, and 66% possible het when you breed a 100% het to a 100% het. In both instances the percentage refers to the likelyness that an individual snake produced in the clutch, not showing visible attributes of the gene, could carry the heterzygous gene. In those cases a breeder may share that there is a possibility the snake carries the gene, but the pricing should still truly only reflect the visual genes apparent, and you should be looking at the animal for those visual components. If you dinker with them later and they prove out, then that is the bonus. If they don't then you have the snake you intended to purchase anyways. As far as selling hets, I agree that 100% hets should be reasonably as likely to sell as the market demands, but possible hets is like being given a free scratch off ticket with a $100 purchase. Its possible you'll end up with more but don't count on it so if your spending a $100 then make certain you like what your buying and it's worth a $100.

[yzguy]

well there IS a bit of a gamble...
breeding a pied to a pied will get you 100% pieds, no gamble
breeding het to het SHOULD get you 25% pieds
breeding het to pied SHOULD get you 50% pieds

breeding het to het, you may not get any visuals, but then again you may get lucky and get more than 25%, that is the gamble (assuming the breeder is trustworthy)
breeding het to visual, you would have to be very unlucky to not get any visuals, but I suppose it could happen...

[JPerkins]

so let me get this right, if you breed to 100% hets together the normal babies (with markers or some clue of het) would only be 66% het?

[JPerkins]

Thank you all so much.. this forum is an awesome learning place and the people have been awesome!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

well there IS a bit of a gamble...
breeding a pied to a pied will get you 100% pieds, no gamble

What if all you get are slugs wouldn't have that been a gamble too than?

Anything can be considered gamble when breeding animals. the case here is that hets are no gamble they will (if they produce) produce visuals sooner or later.

so let me get this right, if you breed to 100% hets together the normal babies (with markers or some clue of het) would only be 66% het?

Yes het to het result in the offsprings being considered 66% hets

Het to normal will result in the offsprings being considered 50% hets

Visual to normal will result in the offsprings being 100% hets

[Eric Alan]

so let me get this right, if you breed to 100% hets together the normal babies (with markers or some clue of het) would only be 66% het?

For clarity's sake, the individual babies themselves either are or are not het (sort of like a light switch - on or off). The catch is that you typically don't have a way at differentiating those that are, or are not, hets until breeding. The percentages reflect the probability that the normal looking babies are carrying a recessive gene - not anything about the individuals themselves. A 66% het will not produce any more or less visual offspring than a 50% het if it turns out that neither animal is actually het for their recessive trait (there's no such thing as a partial het).