het question

[spix14]

What's the deal with the whole 50%, 100% het thing? Is it just their chances of being het, and you won't know until you prove them out, or what?

[Nate]

yep, that's their chance of being het. 100% is het.

If you have 3 possible het albinos, then they're all labeled as pos het, because you don't know which one IS het until you prove it out.

[PythonChick]

I will try to explain as best as I understand. A snake that is 100% het IS het for the trait, meaning that they carry a single copy of the recessive trait in question.

66% het animals, for an example we will use het for hypo, come from the breeding of a het female to a het male. 1/4 of the babies will show the recessive trait, in this case hypo, 1/4 of the babies will be normal (two copies of the dominant gene and no copy of the recessive gene), and 2/4 of the babies will be het (1 copy of the recessive and 1 copy of the 'normal' gene). Since you can not visually tell a het from a normal, you say that any normal baby has a 2/3 chance of being one of those hets. Thus, any normal baby from this pairing is said to 66% het since there is a 66% chance that they are het for the trait in question.

50% animals would come from breeding a het to a normal (I think) since every normal baby would have a 50% chance of being het for the recessive trait.

With the 66% and 50% and any other percent that is less than 100, you are correct in thinking that you could not know for certain without breeding them and proving them out.

[Gecko Den]

I will try to explain as best as I understand. A snake that is 100% het IS het for the trait, meaning that they carry a single copy of the recessive trait in question.

66% het animals, for an example we will use het for hypo, come from the breeding of a het female to a het male. 1/4 of the babies will show the recessive trait, in this case hypo, 1/4 of the babies will be normal (two copies of the dominant gene and no copy of the recessive gene), and 2/4 of the babies will be het (1 copy of the recessive and 1 copy of the 'normal' gene). Since you can not visually tell a het from a normal, you say that any normal baby has a 2/3 chance of being one of those hets. Thus, any normal baby from this pairing is said to 66% het since there is a 66% chance that they are het for the trait in question.

50% animals would come from breeding a het to a normal (I think) since every normal baby would have a 50% chance of being het for the recessive trait.

With the 66% and 50% and any other percent that is less than 100, you are correct in thinking that you could not know for certain without breeding them and proving them out.

Keep in mind that in the above Het to Het scenario, the percentages are representative of each egg, not the clutch as a whole. a 4 egg clutch could give you 4 visuals or 0 visuals. There are no guarantees that in a 4 egg clutch you will get 1 visual, 1 normal and 2 Hets.

[spix14]

So if you can't know for sure if a baby is het or normal, then how can breeders sell baby hets? How would they know if it was het or not if it's too young to have been proven?

Thanks for all the answers!

[nevohraalnavnoj]

well you do know if it's het if for example:

1) You breed a homozygous to a normal: All are 100% hets
2) You breed a homozygous to a het/pos het: Anything that comes out that doesn't display the trait is guaranteed to be het since the homozygous gave its copy of the gene.

If you breed het/het then you get the 66% pos hets. If you breed het/normal you get the 50% pos hets.

I hope this helps,

JonV

[rabernet]

Have you read this sticky yet? It might help explain for you:

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=52847

[spix14]

Thanks for that! I'm a very visual learner so that was perfect. I think all this stuff is finally starting to click in my brain now.