will this dorsal stripe be passed on?

Hi,

I'm adopting this python tomorrow because I love the dorsal stripe.

I'm curious, since ive never bred bp's before but i plan to, can I expect this dorsal stripe to show up in some of the babies?

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j1...psx2oolgjr.png

As far as I am aware, pattern is not something that is past on per-say. A spider BP will always have spider marking but they will not look the same as its parents. A high white pied or calico may produce low white babies. You will never know what a BP will look like until it is out of the egg. There are things you can predict like the morph but not exactly what that morphs pattern will look like.

There's a small chance it might be genetic, (and I do hope it is because it looks awesome) but there's only one way to find out! :gj:

Thanks for the help I appreciate it.

I'm looking forward to trying the odds and see how it plays out.

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Originally Posted by Cohazard

Thanks for the help I appreciate it.

So can anyone tell me if they personally or know of someone who breeds not just for proven genetic traits but also looks at pattern details such as this?

I'm trying to get an idea if I'll be wasting my time trying to breed certain looking snakes in hopes of producing a certain look, or if the patterns are just so random it's not worth trying.

I'll probably end up doing it either way because I would enjoy the fun of trying it out, just looking for experience and knowledge from you all since I'm a noob.

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No one will be able to say with any certainty whether or not a trait will be genetic without proving it out. Some of the most amazing looking snakes that just had to be genetic have proven out to not be and vice versa. You certainly wouldn't be wasting your time if you picked a good looking snake to pair it to - often traits will be passed along to compliment a proven morph to improve upon/highlight the looks of the offspring.

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Originally Posted by Eric Alan

No one will be able to say with any certainty whether or not a trait will be genetic without proving it out. Some of the most amazing looking snakes that just had to be genetic have proven out to not be and vice versa. You certainly wouldn't be wasting your time if you picked a good looking snake to pair it to - often traits will be passed along to compliment a proven morph to improve upon/highlight the looks of the offspring.

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Thank you sorry I edited my post while you were responding because I realized based on the others responses I was beating a dead horse and sounded like I wasn't understanding.

Just a bit more fun to the hobby I guess.

Not all breeding projects are about specific genetic predictions like recessive and dominant traits. There's also this thing called selective breeding...which unfortunately is less commonly practiced in the ball python arena. When you find a polymorphic trait (which is likely what that back stripe is) that you like, you can work on breeding that trait into your offspring. It just doesn't happen as predictably or with as much assurance as known individual genetic traits. The more you breed high quality traits back to each other, the more likely they are to be expressed in future generations...whether that be back stripes, clean patterns, black backs, bright colors....whatever!

Judy is right on. Which means that both parents provide genetic material to the babies. You don't want to mate your snake to just any ball python of the opposite sex. You want one that also has a great dorsal stripe. Best of luck!