Questions about a few morphs.

[paulh]

I'm seeing conflicting information on whether there is such a thing as a 'super leopard'. Some say there's no such thing, and some say there is but it doesn't look different from a single copy of the gene. So is there any reason to bred leopard to leopard? Will I get more leopards out of that pairing or will I get the same ratios?

...

Is there are super leopard? I don't know, but maybe I can clarify things a bit. First a homozygous leopard ball python has two copies of the leopard gene. A heterozygous leopard ball python (or just plain leopard ball python if you prefer) has a leopard gene paired with a normal gene. To some people, a super leopard ball python and a homozygous leopard ball python are the same thing, and in addition, a super leopard ball python and a leopard ball python can be distinguished by differences in color, pattern, etc. To other people, a super leopard ball python is simply a homozygous leopard ball python. The super leopard and the leopard may or may not look different.

So maybe everyone is saying the same thing--that a homozygous leopard ball python and a heterozygous ball python look alike. This is the case with pinstripe--there are homozygous pinstripe ball pythons and heterozygous pinstripes, and they look alike.

On the other hand, maybe there is no such thing as a super leopard because the homozygous leopard ball python dies before hatching. This seems to be the case with the spider gene.

The way to get a super leopard ball python is to mate a leopard to another leopard. The probability of a homozygous leopard baby is 25%, of a heterozygous leopard baby is 50%, and of a normal baby is 25%. So the probability of some sort of leopard babies is 75% rather than the 50% from a heterozygous leopard x normal. The probability of heterozygous leopard babies from a homozygous leopard x normal mating is 100%. So, IMO, the higher probability of leopard babies makes a good economic reason for a breeder to mate leopard x leopard and to use a homozygous leopard as a breeder.

The above paragraph assumes that homozygous leopard ball pythons are as healthy as heterozygous leopard ball pythons. Weakling or dead homozygous leopard babies would be good reason not to mate leopard x leopard. I'd try to find out the answer if I was breeding leopards, but I come from a long line of farmers. Sunday dinner depended on making pets of only a few of the animals in the barnyard. YMMV.