Line Breeding

[Iridium]

If a certain morph is line bred for certain traits for long enough to make those traits more prominent than the rest of the morph, would it be considered a new morph? Is there any instances where this has happened? Just a curiosity question, sorry if it's stupid, haha.

[Aercadia]

Doesn't seem like a stupid question to me :) I'm new here and I want to learn ALL the things too, I'd be interested to hear how this works! How are new morphs discovered?

[Slaugbr1]

Iam new to ball pythons so iam not sure but i think there are snakes that have brighter or more vivid of the same morp in other snakes that will keep there line looking better then the other snakes line.

that being said to my knowledge all the morphs have started off from a natural mutation not selective breeding

[paulh]

If a certain morph is line bred for certain traits for long enough to make those traits more prominent than the rest of the morph, would it be considered a new morph? Is there any instances where this has happened? Just a curiosity question, sorry if it's stupid, haha.

Not a stupid question at all.

I would not consider it a new morph. Rather a breeding line. Orange ghost in ball pythons is one possibility. The salmonboa breeding line in boa constrictors has been selected for the hypo mutant gene and red-orange ground color. Several breeders have established pastel breeding lines in boa constrictors.

New morphs are discovered when somebody finds an animal that doesn't seem normal. This may be a slight difference or a major difference from normal. And then someone breeds it and finds that the difference follows Mendel's rules of genetics. The difference may originate in a wild caught animal or in one that is descended from hundreds of generations of captive bred ancestors. As far as I know, all ball python mutant genes originated in wild snakes. Most mutant genes in mice, pigeons, and other longtime domesticated animals originated in captive animals.

A base morph has one mutant gene, and all other genes are normal. A designer morph has two or more mutant genes, and all the other genes are normal.

[Monty's_Mom]

There is a difference between line breeding and inbreeding. Inbreeding is breeding (human terms) children back to parents and siblings to siblings. This is most often done to increase chances of proving a mutation can be genetically passed on.

Line breeding is similar but it is more often cousin to cousin or breeding to a grandparent. Outcrossing is done but usually only for ensuring the health of the animals. This is most often done to ensure that desired traits that are already established stay true for visual morphs.

[OhhWatALoser]

Line breeding was a term created with a super loose definition so you could inbreed without saying you are inbreeding.

OP no it would not be a new morph. A morph is a single mutant gene aka monogenetic, it is passed in a predictable way most of the time.

Line breeding usually has an intent that is pure polygenetics. You have multiple mutant genes, that normally by themselves are not identifiable, but when they all come together, they make cool stuff happen. Compare the bright yellow pastels vs the dull ones. The pastel gene itself could be exactly the same in both animals, it is all the other genes we don't see by themselves, but when come together make the bright yellow snake we see. If you refined a trait of a morph, you wouldn't call it a new morph, but you could claim you made a line of that morph.

Sometimes in the hobby, we use line to describe something that is not line breeding at all. sometimes lines of morphs are just morphs that were brought into captivity at different times. Lemon pastel and bell line pastel, both the same pastel gene, but got brought into captivity at different times. but then there are lines of morphs that are completely different morphs, vpi, tsk, jolliff lines of axanthic may all look the same, but are completely different morphs. Breed two lines together and you make double hets.