Pied Theory

[Brandon Osborne]

I think it has everything to do with the pattern of the snake combined with the pied gene.
Spieds have coloured heads and not much else, from what I've seen of Piebald Lessers, they have very little pattern if any.
Maybe it's the variance in the "Normal" pattern that determines the amount of white. Much like the contrast in albinos.
The theory backs up the claim that certain "lines" produce a higher percentage of High White Pieds.

-Steven

Steven, which lines claim to produce high whites? I'm not sure what you mean by the "normal" pattern of the snake causing the amount of white. That to me is the random part. When you mix things such as pinstripe, spider, even cinnamon, in the mix the pattern is then disrupted. We have seen all of these combos produce mostly all white pieds with only colored heads. I produced 3 Pewter Pieds this season and all of them were white except for the heads. I believe this was caused by the cinny gene of the Pewter. All of the Pastel Pieds I've seen, and I have produced them, have had normal amount of random white and pastel pattern.

I think what I'm trying to say here is, if you look at the super form of some of the co-doms, or the doms with distinctly different patters, we are getting pieds with white bodies and the usual colored head. Those that do not affect pattern and are only color based are producing the normal looking pieds with different colors.

Color based morphs combined with pied where pattern is not affected. All of these morphs on their own continue to produce normal patterns even the super pastel.
Albino
Axanthic
Pastel
Ghost

Pattern based morphs combined with pied where patter is affected. All of these morphs produce a disturbance in patter, especially the super forms of cinny, mojave and lesser.
Pinstripe
Spider
Cinny
Clown
Mojave
Lesser

I'm not saying I know the cause of why the combos are high or low white ,but I have noticed a trend. At least we all have something to discuss. Any other ideas? Very cool topic!