Question about Genetics

[Talley Reptiles]

Hello all, I am pretty new to ball python morphs and find them really interesting, will probably buy some soon and start breeding to see what I can come up with. But as I was looking around today I couldn't get a question out of my head... I was using a Genetic Wizard to see what different combos would give, and I understand why you can have a het albino for example, but how do you know it is a het albino? From what I see it looks the exact same as a normal. So if you breed a normal and a het albino, you can get a het albino and normals, but how do you tell the different? I also see websites advertising selling 'Pastel Enchi 100% Het Albino', but how do they know that snake is 100% Het Albino if there are going to be others in the clutch that look the same but are not het albino? I would think it would be too costly to have a genetic test (if you can even do that) for every snake.

I would appreciate it if you could enlighten me! Thanks in advance!

[Eric Alan]

In this order: You're right - you visually can't tell hets from non-hets - you need to know about the parents to be certain; This time you end up with all animals possibly being hets (50% chance for every hatchling) because you can't separate them visually or genetically without breeding them when they are old enough to do so; 100% het means that one of the parents was an actual albino (or that it's proven to be a het because it's produced albinos of its own) - no need for a genetic test.

Did I lose you yet or do you feel enlightened?

[Talley Reptiles]

That makes since. But in the Genetic Wizard I put in Het Albino and a Normal. It said half would be het albino and have normal... How would you know which is which?

[Eric Alan]

That makes since. But in the Genetic Wizard I put in Het Albino and a Normal. It said half would be het albino and have normal... How would you know which is which?

You wouldn't. Statistically, every hatchling in that clutch has a 50% chance of being an albino. In reality, only 50% (give or take for randomness) will actually be het albino. Until they are bred themselves, every baby from that pairing is considered 50% het albino. It's like a Schrodinger's cat situation.

Edit: For what it's worth, this is where the Genetic Wizard falls short as a teaching tool.

[Talley Reptiles]

Hmm. So I would want to breed every offspring out of the clutch to a Albino, and if an Albino comes out, then I know it's a 50% het? If so that makes this a lot more difficult than I thought.

[Eric Alan]

Hmm. So I would want to breed every offspring out of the clutch to a Albino, and if an Albino comes out, then I know it's a 50% het? If so that makes this a lot more difficult than I thought.

If you got an albino from them, then it would change from being considered a 50% possible albino to being an actual het albino (a 100%).

Anything less than100% and you're talking about the chances are that it's carrying the albino gene - its chances of being a het. Once you prove that it is, by producing an albino offspring from it, then you know that it's an actual het.

It's honestly not that confusing at all once the light bulb clicks on and you're able to understand the difference between possible hets and actual hets and how each are produced.

[Talley Reptiles]

Ohhhhh ok. I had it stuck in my mind that if something was 33% het something then that meant it carried 33% of that gene lol. But I understand that now! Thanks a lot!

[Eric Alan]

Ohhhhh ok. I had it stuck in my mind that if something was 33% het something then that meant it carried 33% of that gene lol. But I understand that now! Thanks a lot!

There it is!

Short version:
Two albino parents = all albino offspring
One albino parent, one het albino parent = some albino offspring, some 100% het offspring
One albino parent, one normal parent = all 100% het offspring
Two het albino parents = some albino offspring, some 66% possible het offspring
One het albino parent, one normal parent: all 50% possible het offspring

[Talley Reptiles]

Makes a lot more since now. But I guess I'm out of luck with my two BPs... they both look normal(Even though one is darker than the other), but the only way to find if they had anything het would be to breed them alloott or get a test huh?

[Eric Alan]

Brace yourself for a bit of reality. Unless you bought them as anything other than a normal ball python, there's pretty much a zero percent chance that they're anything more than that.

Normals can be awesome in their own right though. If you can, post some pictures and share your snakes with us.