hi, need help to ID some babies. About 5 years ago, i got a few BPs just to have fun with my daughter. I got what at that time the seller told me as:
Male: pastel, yellowbelly/ asphalt.
Female: vanilla, ghost, with yellowbelly/ asphalt.
I’ll include pics of the parents.
last year in late july mama laid 5 good eggs and late september all 5 hatched.
Out of those 5, 2 came out either freeway or highway. 5 years ago, the term gravel wasnt as popular or hasn’t been ID’ed as the yellowbelly/ asphalt family, to my recollection.
1 came out for sure it’s a pastel with similar markings like the mama, triangular mark on head, blushing on back and with YB/ asphalt/ gravel flames.
2 came out looking like normals. i gave 1 to my co-worker for Christmas (he got 4 kids and they all love it). the other one has a bit head stamp like mama under good lighting.
So my question is, from the parents and how the baby looks like, what do I have in terms of the parents and the babies? Thanks
edit: well, new user can only post 1 pic. So let me see if i can keep replying.
dad
2 Likes
clockwise:
1+2 = pastel yb/ asp/ gravel
3+4 = hw/ fw
5 = 2nd hw/fw
6 = normal with subtle triangular headstamp, minimal blushing/ flames
2 Likes
Congrats on the clutch~
I’m a bit confused. You call them freeway or highways.
Freeway = asphalt + yellowbelly
Highway = gravel + yellowbelly
You cannot have a highway with the genes you have listed with the parents. It is possible that they were mislabeled or identified by the breeder. Asphalt and Gravel are 2 different mutations that have been confirmed through genetic testing.
That having been said… I haven’t worked with the complex enough to really say for certain myself, but they look suspiciously more like pastel or vanilla highway to me.
Someone more knowledgeable about IDing the complex may be able to better ID that however. Or you can consider getting one of the babies shed tested.
Going by what you have listed in the parents, for 1, 2 and 5 I’m seeing:
1 pastel yb/asphalt het hypo
2 vanilla yb/asphalt het hypo
5 het hypo
3 Likes
HI, thanks for the reply.
So yes, I meant they’re either HW OR FW. Seller was responsible enough to tell me that he couldn’t pinpoint what genes the parents have. He said they’re either YB or Asphalt and if I breed them, I should have a better understanding of what they are. He said if they’re both YB, then I should have a Blue or black eye lucy, one of those. If both are asphalt, the babies would look like super asphalt (like a yellowish spark with black spots). I held on to that until recently when I got the babies. Upon researching, apparently they recently isolated another variation of the YB/ asphalt allele (?) called gravel.
So now I know the parents have different genes out of the YB gene, but instead of narrowing down to YB & Asphalt to get a FW I now am more confused because the babies could look like a HW. I’m just wondering the possibilities of a gravel gene on one of the parents. I looked at for sale ads for FW and HW and when I look at my babies, I can’t pinpoint it lol.
They shed a week ago and I used flash to take the pics due to the room light not giving enough contrast when taking pictures.
1 Like
Neither asphalt or gravel are ‘new’. Both mutations have been around for 15ish years. They can be extremely difficult to ID from each other and yellowbelly. So it’s easier to just say either/or. So it’s not uncommon for someone to get the wrong gene sometimes. Ivory is just very easy to ID as a super.
It could be an issue where the flash washout and my phone are really distorting the looks. I’m gonna tag @inspirationexotics because she may be help on the photos.
Easiest way to end your confusion, when the babies shed next, take one of the allelic baby sheds to test.
Test the baby for asphalt. If they come back negative then you do in fact have gravel so they are highways.
If you test the parents you won’t know which one is the YB, that’s why testing one combo baby is a better and cheaper option. If you want to nail down which parent is which, test one for YB and either asphalt or gravel.
Neg for Asphalt and YB would mean Gravel
Pos for YB means the other adult has the A/G
My main issue is just you cannot call them highway unless you are absolutely certain that they are not carrying asphalt. This is why I dislike combo names and typically stock with longer individual genetic lists.
2 Likes
Thanks for the reply. I see what you’re saying. I’ll be sure to save the shed from one of the babies and get it tested.
Yeah, unfortunately with yellowbelly complex genes like this that are very close in appearance, there’s really no way to know without genetic testing (or long term breeding out). I would definitely recommend testing to know for sure whether asphalt or gravel.
1 Like
