Hey everyone! Just picked up this gorgeous girl and have been looking into genetics, I have a few guesses but would like advice from others who know way more!
My guesses
Mojave (side pattern?)
Yellow Belly (pattern on belly)
Trick (pattern on the sides and lines on the top)
Or just a unique normal!
I guess the big question is where you purchased her.
If it was a private breeder they should be able to tell you the lineage. If it was a big box or chain type pet store, sometimes you get surprises, but most of the time it’s not.
My guess would be a very nice normal. Trick is more of an uncommon gene so not something you would normally see outside of here or a reptile show.
Mojaves and yellowbelly are definitely more common, but I’m honestly not seeing either. Hopefully someone else comes in with some more insight
It looks like a nice normal/wild type to me!
In that case, how would I go about proving out if she’s a normal or has other genes? (Once she’s of size/age of course)
You would need to find what you think she is and breed for a super or allelic combo. Or if you have something that reacts a certain way with a gene you could try for that. For example, black pastel mojaves look very specific.
You could try something like a gravel that carries a gene like Mystic or special. That way if you did hit Mojave, it’s not a white snake you can’t tell more about from the BEL. And if you hit highway you know you have yellowbelly.
Breeding her to a Mojave yellowbelly would get you 2 different pure white combos and be difficult to tell apart.
I actually have a Mojave male and a ivory male. Could be worth pairing her with those a year each. Worst case scenario I get some Mojave/normals and a clutch of yellow bellies
Given that she is visibly normal and comes from an unkown background, it’s probably best to keep her has a nice pet and not bother breeding her. Just because an animal can be bred doesn’t necessarily mean it should.
As @chesterhf had mentioned, that appears to be a normal. If was actually het for something and it’s likely that it could be, it’s a situation where you’ll invest years, rack space, and money only to potentially learn it’s het for a morph that won’t be worth a few hundred dollars each. Invest your time in something you can be sure of and you’ll be a lot happier.
Yeah, 3 guesses for normal are poor odds for trying to prove out a couple neat markers.
Normals can still make great pets. My oldest is a normal male.
That said… I have bred a normal female this year, but the only time it’s worth breeding is if you can guarantee a gene is passed. Like a visual recessive or something with an allelic combo. In my case, I’m trying to ID genes in a BEL I picked up with no info on parents. Every hatchling will be guaranteed a gene.
Normals and even the low ends I’ll be hatching from my potential clutch if she goes, are hard to place and home. Also remember the feeding and raising them between the hatching and sale.
I agree that she looks to be a normal too, mojave also tends to be a bit lighter brown from my experience. You could pair her to a male mojave and if she is mojave they would have some BELs or pair her to a YB and see if you get any super YBs if those are your suspected possible morphs. And then there is always the super duper rare chance she is a dinker. There are het pied markers on true normals too where the area on the ventral side by the tail has two super dark lines (not always but its a good marker)
