How can you tell the difference?

Hey everyone, I just want to learn more about the differences of the look between "piebald het axanthic" & "lightning pied(mj) or axanthic pied(vpi)." obviously I know one is het but they all kind of look the same to me, I've search on the Internet mostly lightning pied shows up. Example If you were to put 2 piebald het axanthic together, can you tell the difference in the clutch from a axanthic pied to a piebald het axanthic? Sorry if this is a dumb question

The axanthic pied will be obvious, they will be lightning pied. All others will be ordinary looking pieds, on average 2/3 of these will be het for axanthic. However, you won't be able to visually tell the axanthic hets from the non hets.

Give this a read.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...Basic-Genetics

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Originally Posted by DennisM

The axanthic pied will be obvious, they will be lightning pied. All others will be ordinary looking pieds, on average 2/3 of these will be het for axanthic. However, you won't be able to visually tell the axanthic hets from the non hets.

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this answer only applies if the axanthic lines are compatible. I'm not sure what the current state of compatibility is as I don't keep axanthics.

The lighting pied is Marcus Jayne line of Axanthic Pied so in theory only Axanthic Pied using his line of Axanthic should really be called Lighting Pied, but we all know that it is not the case.

The bottom line is that an Axanthic Pied is an Axanthic Pied regardless of the line, also not all equal when it comes to looks since some Axanthic lines look better than others.

None of the Axanthic lines are compatible so if you want to produce Axanthic Pieds you need to pick a line of Axanthic and stick with it, the best looking one and most popular is VPI..

Thanks Deborah, yes I do have the male piebald het axanthic VPI, I was thinking of breeding It with an MJ. In theory they would produce double hets, then breed those double hets together and create something that would be compatible with each other. I'm willing to go down that road but I want to hear some professional advice before I do.

Actually if you bred a snake that's het for VPI acanthic to an MJ axanthic they would only be 100% het for the MJ line. About half the clutch might be het for the VPI line as well, but you'd have no way of telling which ones and that would make it difficult to sell the babies. Even if you kept them all and eventually produced visual axanthics and axanthic pieds, you wouldn't know for sure which line of axanthic they were. A lot of people won't buy an axanthic unless they know which line they're getting, myself included.

Right now I'm only working with the VPI line, so if I bought an axanthic and it turned out to be from any other line I woulnd't be able to produce visual axanthics and that would mess up my breeding plans. As much as I like the idea -in theory- of having a double visual axanthic (would it be even grayer than any single line could possible be? who knows!) I don't have the space or the money to keep a bunch of holdbacks that no one will buy.

If you are really set on crossing lines, the best way to do it would be to start with two visual axanthics. No hets. Then the babies would be 100% het for both lines for sure. You'd still run into the same problem down the line when producing visuals though. If you breed two double hets there's no knowing for sure what the axanthic babies are. Are they VPI line? MJ? Both?

Thank you for your reply, I'll stick with the VPI line for now just working with what I got, now my mission is to find a 0.1 pied het axanthic to go with my male, probably going to cost me a pretty penny but hopefully it works out in the end. Cheers!

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Originally Posted by Nuggetsinabox

Thank you for your reply, I'll stick with the VPI line for now just working with what I got, now my mission is to find a 0.1 pied het axanthic to go with my male, probably going to cost me a pretty penny but hopefully it works out in the end. Cheers!

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If I were doing this, I would get an Axanthic het for Pied female instead. In both possible pairings the theoretical odds of Axanthic Pied is 25% of the clutch. In Pied het axanthic x Pied het axanthic the remaining 75% of the clutch will be Pied possible het for axanthic. In Pied het axanthic x het pied axanthic the remaining 75% will have known genetics. The pieds will be het axanthic, the axanthics will be het pied and everyone else will be double het.

Oh wow thanks for your input, I'll definitely search for an axanthic het pied, it kinda difficult here in Toronto I haven't seen anyone posting axanthic het pied lately