Has anyone proved less than 100% Hets.?

[Dave Green]

I've had incredible luck with poss. hets. I proved out (so far) 7 of 9 50% poss. het lavs and I'm still working with the other two. I also proved out 5 of 5 66% poss het pieds. I just proved out the last poss. het pied, I got five pieds and one het!! These were all from Steve Roussis. I joke with him that he sells hets as poss. hets. These poss. hets have really helped with my lavender and pied projects. If you trust the source I believe poss. hets are a great way to get into expensive projects.

[RandyRemington]

Back when 100% hets were much more expensive there was a lot more talk about possible hets. Seemed like everyone either loved or hated them with no one in between. I think it comes down to if you are a glass half full or half empty person. Either you are excited about the chance to prove a possible het or fearful of the possibility that it will not prove. Anyway, many people never prove possible hets because they don't want to try.

Most of the several I've proven were by cheating with markers. Last year I produced 5 pieds from a 50% chance het male to two 25% chance females. All had really good markers so it wasn't much of a long shot.

I proved a 50% chance het hypo girl I held back because she was the only female in the 50% of the clutch that was much lighter than the other half. Last year I produced a hypo and cinnamon hypo from her bred to a cinnamon 50% chance het hypo picked because of his light faded color. This year I've got 10 eggs from her bred to a very light 50% possible het hypo pastel male. I'll be surprised if he doesn't also prove based on most het hypos being unusually clean and bright colored in my experience.

With albino I'm not aware of anything to look for but have proven two 50% chance females (and failed to prove two of their sisters). With one of them it was a 66% chance het albino male to a 50% chance het female that produced albinos proving them both. Yes I end up selling a lot of normals to pet stores and probably could have bought pieds and albinos by now but I'm really liking the ones I finally produced working with possible hets. Maybe a decade long project makes you appreciate it more, lol.

My next goal is to produce double and maybe even triple recessives working with possible hets. I have a shot at both pied and stripe this year out of possible het females and if hit the babies will also be possible double het for snow. My luck may not hold but the only way I know for sure I’ll miss is if I don’t try. Well even without trying you could find your glass half full like the case I know of with a markered captive hatch line producing pieds for someone who didn't believe in the markers before then, or someone producing an axanthic pied without even knowing the axanthic gene was in the line, or the guy who produced the first hypo jigsaw from a pinstripe unknown het for hypo.

[Serpent_Nirvana]

Back when 100% hets were much more expensive there was a lot more talk about possible hets. Seemed like everyone either loved or hated them with no one in between. I think it comes down to if you are a glass half full or half empty person. Either you are excited about the chance to prove a possible het or fearful of the possibility that it will not prove. Anyway, many people never prove possible hets because they don't want to try.

I always used to say that I would never do a breeding myself that could produce possible hets (eg, het x het), because I want to know what I'm producing and offering for sale.

Somehow I got started on the poss het collecting kick, though ... Just seems like a fun little gamble! I know I'd never be able to afford to buy all of the morphs that are possible het for recessives outright if they were definite hets, and if even a few prove out, I am way ahead on my investments and have put myself several years ahead on a number of projects. (Now of course after all this talking, watch nothing will prove out ... )

[artist&writer]

Thanks guys! This really gives me hope for my future projects. Hopefully all of you will be looking at my mojave pieds, hypo mystic potions, etc. in a few years!