Mystic Potion / Hidden Gene Woma question

[Serpent_Nirvana]

Randy, AFAIK that's correct, though honestly I'd never even heard RDR's "het platties" referred to as "hidden genes." I think at this point most people seem to be calling them "het platties," which I think is a bit less confusing ...

To the OP, if you cross a "het platty" to your lesser, you can get a platinum. My understanding is that these look just like normal ball pythons, with no markers or anything, so you pretty much just have to just buy one that came out of a platty daddy breeding. OR, you just breed your lesser to a whole bunch of normals and PRAY ... I have heard more than one story of breeders popping out unexpected platty clutches because their "normal" female was het platty!

... Though the really confusing part is that to my knowledge, a homozygous "het platty" still just looks like a normal!

NERD's "hidden gene woma" (which I really wish could get re-named) and your average "woma" are two completely different morphs that have not one single thing to do with one another. The "hidden gene woma" is a single-gene mutation -- nothing hidden about it. It was imported at the same time as the "regular ol' woma," both by NERD, and Kevin thought they might be the same thing at first, because they do look similar. Then it was discovered that the "hidden-gene" woma does crazy things when mixed with lesser, plus creates the neat looking, but lethal, pearl in homozygous form. The regular-style woma does not do these things -- I've seen some fairly nice woma-lessers and some "blah" woma-lessers, but none look anything like the soul-sucker (HG woma/lesser).

I don't really like the term "hidden gene" because I think it's confusing, but in the case of the het platties it almost makes sense -- they don't look like anything until bred to a lesser, mojave, etc.. In the case of the "hidden gene woma," it means nothing and is just a name. There is no hidden gene involved, just a different gene from the woma that's readily available.

The only other thing that I know of that I've heard referred to as having a "hidden gene" is the Citrus/whiteout pastel stuff, where the more extreme appearance seems to pop up randomly ... I am not at all knowledgeable on that so maybe someone else could fill in on what's going on with that line.