Excited Depression

[DRUTTLEN]

I'm ecstatic for the members who's Het Pied X Het Pied mixes came out better than expected, and at the same time depressed with the knowledge gained. You see i just got into morphs and was told by a friend (who deals in multiple morphs but never pieds) that a Het male and normal female would produce a mixed Het Pied and full pied morph clutch first time go. learning here that even a 100% het male and normal female are virtually never going to produce even a single full morph breaks my heart. not sure what to do next. i love all snakes ball pythons hold a special place for me (got my first one at 8) and for me pies were the ultimate goal. now i'm kinda lost.

[rabernet]

I'm not certain why this is such devasting news? A het pied female can be picked up for a very reasonable price these days. Why not purchase one and raise her up to breed to your het pied male?

Or do what I'm doing with my het clown male - I bred him to a normal, and I'm holding back all his daughers who are 50% possible het clowns (each of them have a 50% chance of carrying the clown gene) and raising them up to prove them out.

You may find this site to be helpful to you as you learn the genetics involved with different mutations and how they work. All you need to know is whether a mutation is recessive, dominant or co-dominant and that information can found pretty easily. I'm surprised that your friend who deals in multiple morphs isn't aware how recessive genes work, and pied is one of the more well known recessives.

The example in the link is albino, but it's the same outcome with pieds or any other recessive.

http://www.ballpython.ca/genetics.html

[pavlovk1025]

Fauna has a set of 09 het pieds for 400. Check em out. This is nothing to be heartbroken over, Ive had the same experience when I bought my het albino girl and then a het lavender albino male thinking they were compatible. Either way, its all good man. Robin's idea is a good one, Id do that if I were you. I didnt want to wait so I just decided to pay JKR for a set of 100% hets. If you buy a breeding het pair, all you have is more firepower when you get your hands on more het females.

[DRUTTLEN]

so a few hours after my original post spent infusing info from this site and others and i feel better, i guess it was just the initial let down of going from possible morphs this season, to a 3 to 4 season wait if i breed and hold back. but thank you for the replies you guys have been very helpful in putting things in perspective. so the new game plan is to pick up a het female for this season while attempting to produce my own het females for follow on breeding.

lastly though i know most breeders have their "stud" morphs but numbers usually arnt mentioned i was wondering how many females i should try and breed hit my het male in a single season with out over doing it?