2 Questions

#1: When people talk about a ball python in relation to the word "Het," what does that mean?

#2: Can someone explain the difference between captive bred and captive hatched/farm? I think it means, they went out and got the eggs from the wild (?) How does this affect the snakes demeanor? Does it?

* Het stands for heterozygous. Means that a snake carries a gene for the particular trait but looks normal. Here's a pretty good explanation of morph terminology in this care sheet: http://www.reptilerooms.com/Sections...59-page-1.html

* Captive hatched... occurs when wild females are captured, they are put into big tubs & the babies are taken when they are hatched. They didn't become gravid in captivity or they would be called CB (captive bred.)

When a pair of genes is required to produce a certain trait (such as pied), and only one gene is present, the snake is "het" for that trait. It CAN be something other than "normal" looking though. A pastel bp is "het for super-pastel"...but since we can look at the snake and SEE that it's a pastel, we don't usually call it a het.

When a snake is referred to as a "possible het" that means at least one parent or grandparent in its lineage carried the gene being referred to, but there is no way to tell if the normal-looking snake inherited that gene or not.

The best overall explanation I've seen so far of genetics is from NERD (New England Reptile Distributors)
You can find it under "Intro to Herp Genetics" here http://www.newenglandreptile.com/care.html
or directly jump to it here http://www.newenglandreptile.com/genetics_intro.html

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