HET Albino or actual albino?

[mamaofporter]

Would you rather an HET albino or an albino that resembles an albino?

Forgive me, I'm new at this but does having an actual albino increase my chances of having albino babies compared to the HET?

[Meltdown Morphs]

A 'het albino' will look like a normal colored black and brown ball python. It only has 1 copy of the albino gene.
The snake needs to have 2 copies of the albino gene for it to visually BE an actual albino, the yellow and white snake;and yes. using an actual albino in breeding will give you better odds than using a het.

Het Albino x Het albino breeding

Albino x Het Albino breeding

[Eric Alan]

I think you're confused about what the term "het" means.

• A "het albino" looks like a normal ball python, yet has a 50% chance at passing along its albino gene to its offspring.
• An "albino" actually looks like an albino and is guaranteed to pass along its albino gene to its offspring.

When breeding, you must start off with both parents carrying the albino gene to have a chance at having visually albino babies.

• A visual albino x visual albino pairing will give you a 100% chance at visual albino babies (all will be albinos).
• A visual albino x het albino pairing will give you a 50% chance at visual albino babies.
• A het albino x het albino pairing will give you a 25% chance at visual albino babies.

I hope this helps!

[mamaofporter]

Ok.. so why does the guy I'm talking to say 100% het if there's only a 50% chance they'll be albino? Thanks for explaining.... So new to this.....

Any good books on python morphs and genetics?

[jtipton]

If the seller is telling you that it is 100% Het., they are basically just telling you that one of the parents were a visual Albino.

[Lthv]

Ok.. so why does the guy I'm talking to say 100% het if there's only a 50% chance they'll be albino? Thanks for explaining.... So new to this.....

Any good books on python morphs and genetics?

50% Het Albino occurs when one parent is a Het Albino, as all offspring will have a 50% chance of acquiring the albino gene.

66% Het Albino occurs when both parents are Het Albino, as there are four possible outcomes of this breeding, 1)Albino 2) Het Albino 3) Het Albino 4) Normal. Due to the fact that the two chances of a het albino and the one chance at a normal all look the same (they are normal in appearance) you have a 66% chance (two chances out of three) of the normal looking baby having the albino gene.

100% Het Albino occurs when one parent is a visual albino(white and yellow in appearance) as this animal has two copies of the albino gene it cannot pass a normal gene, so all of its offspring will receive a copy of the albino gene from this parent.

That information is true for all recessive morphs, but you should make sure to educate yourself because some morphs behave differently (dominant and co-dominant) and do not have a het form. It is always best to fully understand something before spending money on it.

[mamaofporter]

Thanks for explaining this to me.....

[Chkadii]

The guy you are talking to is explaining results of breeding a 100% het albino. Pull up a "Punnett square" calculator online. Albino would be "AA" because you need two copies of the gene to produce a visual. "AN" will mean het albino (one copy of the albino gene, one copy of "normal"). If you put them together there are two possible combinations you could get. AN and AA. That means odds are half of the clutch will be visual albinos, and the other half would be het albino, with one copy of the gene. Again, it's just a chance, so you could end up with all hets or all albinos - but that's rare.

If you breed two visual albinos together, you would be crossing AA with AA. The result in all the Punnett square boxes would be AA too, which means all you will get are more visual albinos. So having two visuals is better in the sense that you will always have albino offspring from them. But hets do carry the gene, and can produce a visual albino as well when bred to a visual or another het albino - it might just take longer and you'll produce fewer visual albinos egg for egg than albino x albino.

Having a 50% possible het albino is different than a 50% chance of visual albino offspring in a clutch. 50% possible het (ph) means the snake looks normal, and may or may not carry one copy of the albino gene. For the Punnett square, it would be like breeding AN to AN, or AN to NN (totally normal). Some of the offspring would be AN, but some would be NN. There's no way to tell which hatchlings have the gene and which don't. If you breed a 50% ph albino and it produces a visual albino, that's means it does carry the gene and it's not a 50% chance anymore - it is definitely a het albino at that point because it is "proven" to carry the gene. Most people don't like to take the risk of the snake being normal though, because it's a waste of time and money to raise a snake up to breed it. With visual or het albinos, there's more of a "guarantee" that the offspring will be albino.

TL;DR - visual albino x visual albino would produce a clutch of all visual albinos. Het albino x visual albino produces a mix of visual albinos and het albinos. Het albino x het albino produces visual albinos, het albinos, and normals and they are impossible to tell apart when not visual albinos. Het albino x normal produces only hets and normals, and again they are impossible to tell apart.

Hope this helps!

[Eric Alan]

Ok.. so why does the guy I'm talking to say 100% het if there's only a 50% chance they'll be albino? Thanks for explaining.... So new to this.....

Sorry I missed this! The short answer is, no. There's a 0% chance of them looking albino - it'll look like a normal snake. HOWEVER, there's a 100% chance that it's carrying the albino gene. There's just a 50% chance it'll pass that albino gene along during breeding.

For a much longer answer, all morphs have two genes (alleles) for each trait. For the albino morph, we'll call this "aa" (we'll call normals "AA"; hets are therefore "Aa"). During breeding, there's an equal chance at passing along only one of the two genes (either "a" or "A") to the offspring. The other parent passes along the other gene (either "a" or "A"). Using these letters, here are the possible pairings involving the albino morph:

• aa x aa = all aa offspring (all babies will be albino)
• aa x Aa = 1/2 aa offspring, 1/2 Aa offspring (visual albinos likely; non-visual babies are guaranteed to be het albino - "100% hets")
• aa x AA = all Aa offspring (no visual albinos; all babies are guaranteed to be het albino - "100% hets")
• Aa x Aa = 1/4 aa offspring, 1/2 Aa offspring, 1/4 AA offspring (visual albinos possible; the non-visual babies have a 2/3 chance at being het albino - "66% hets")
• Aa x AA = 1/2 Aa offspring, 1/2 AA offspring (no visual albinos, but all have a 1/2 chance at being het albino - "50% hets")
• AA x AA = all AA offspring (no babies carrying an albino gene)

The "% het" comes in to play during breeding - it represents the chance that the animal is carrying the gene. Since there is no way to visually see the difference between an AA baby and an Aa baby, this is why you see smaller percentages sometimes (the odds that the baby has the gene). You're essentially gambling with anything less than a 100% het. A 66% het or a 50% het might not be carrying the gene at all.

Clear as mud, right? Don't worry - the more you see it, the more it'll start making sense.

Just to clarify, the above example refers to recessive morphs (albino, clown, piebald, etc). You don't have to worry about % hets when you're talking about dominant/incomplete dominant morphs.