Still confused

I'm pretty new to collecting ball pythons. I apologize for being a little confused on how hets work, but I was curious, if I took a het albino and bread it to a pied bald, would I get either of the snakes since the snakes are recessive? Or would all babies be normal? Could i hatch and albino pied bald? I'm trying to understand this whole thing right now. Sorry if this question is asked a million times. I'm really a chameleon guy trying to learn something new.

Don't apologize, that's what these forums are for!


Every recessive gene is a mutation all of it's own and effects the genetics differently. In short you cannot breed two seperate recessive trait animals and expect to get both recessive genes to be visual in the offspring.
If you breed a visual example of a recessive mutation to a normal you will get 100% of the offspring being normal het. recessive.

I'll use Albino as an example;

Albino x Normal = 100% Normal het. Albino (non visual carrier for the albino gene)
Het. Albino x Normal = 50% normal, and 50% normal het. albino
Albino x Normal het. albino = 50% Albinos and 50% normal het. albino
Albino x Albino = 100% Albinos (Visual representations of the mutation)

Where is get's complicated is when you throw other recessive genes into the mix.

Again, I'll use albino as an example, but this time I will include the piebald gene.

If you breed;

Albino x Piebald = 100% Normal het for BOTH albino and piebald.

Now if you take one of those males and breed it back to the piebald mother you would get;

Het. Piebald, het. Albino x Piebald = 25% Piebald,
25% piebald het. albino,
25% normal het. piebald,
25% normal het. piebald het. albino

but you will never get a visual representation of the albino gene UNLESS you breed two siblings TOGETHER from the aforementioned pairing.

Long story short, you need BOTH parental animals to carry both recessive genes either visually or heterogeneously to produce visual offspring that show the traits of both recessive mutations.

Play around with the genetic calculator on WOPB, you'll have a blast and learn a lot.

http://www.worldofballpythons.com/wizard/

hope this helped/ wasn't too confusing.

Yeah you helped me out a lot. I kind of figured that I understood it correctly, but I guess the more I read up on the subject, more I got confused. Plus when you go to reptile shows, the vendors are trying to move product first. It's hard the trust someone who has money on their mind first, rather than help someone who's possibly interested in becoming a future breeder.

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Originally Posted by hpc1979

Yeah you helped me out a lot. I kind of figured that I understood it correctly, but I guess the more I read up on the subject, more I got confused. Plus when you go to reptile shows, the vendors are trying to move product first. It's hard the trust someone who has money on their mind first, rather than help someone who's possibly interested in becoming a future breeder.

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I wouldnt say that at all!

Many breeders will take time to explain if they dont have too many to attend to, Many will also talk to you about your collection or your needs and help set you up with the perfect snake!

Sure at the end of the day $$ matters, but they want happy returning customers! And besides, BUYERS have the $$ on mind we always save a few bucks at expo's vs buying directly :gj: