I have a female that i thought was just a normal but after breeding her to my albino male this year i got a few babies that have definite other hets. I was wondering if i could get a DNA test and figure out what both parents actually have in them.
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As far as I know, nothing like this exists at this time. You can get an animal sexed via DNA testing, but there is no way to determine what genes they’re carrying.
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Thanks i wasn’t sure if they could tell the genes or not. I bought the female at a local reptile store with no information when i first started building my collection. She was bred to a normal albino that i also bred to a normal albino female and got all normal albino babies. From my normal female i got 2 snows, 3 or 4 that look like they may have red factor, i think 3 may be charcoal, and the rest are either albino or normals.
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My guess is the reptile store either breeds their own or buys wholesale. There are usually mystery hets at play in any given “retail” classic corn. If you got Snows, you likely have Anerys and not Charcoals. They’d only be Charcoal if you got Blizzards as well. I’m not sure if by “normal albino” you mean a visual Amel or a “normal” that is het for Amel, but either way both animals must be het Anery and the female het Amel.
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There are two groups that are working toward this with ball pythons and have a short list of valid tests. One of these groups is also accepting sheds for any/all species to build a database but how long it might get for them to extend that database to morphs in other species has never been mentioned.
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I’ve heard of one of the ball python groups working on that. Did not know there were two groups and I definitely didn’t know they were accepting other species’ sheds! I would love to send some in. Can you link their website or contact info?
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Rare Genetics Inc. (the group that has the sexing from sheds) is the second group working toward identification of ball morphs. He is also accepting sheds, instructions on how to send them in are on his website
(Potential for adult language in both of these so be cautioned)
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Cool, thanks!
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Thank you @t_h_wyman, I thought I’d heard of Rare Genetics doing something like that, but couldn’t remember where. I’ve been using their DNA sexing, so I’ll definitely start sending in more sheds if they’ll take them.
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Anyone know what the cost involved in DNA testing is? I would love to know the genetics of this female. When i purchased the pair i was told they had just purchased the pair from an individual the day before and that person had bred them for the last 2 years but they didn’t know what morphs they had. Both are around 4 or 5 years old.
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The cost of actual sequencing is not terrible, in research terms. Probably looking at a few thousand. Bigger matter is the bioinformatic tools and processing power involved in decoding, interpreting, and understanding the different data sets
More information on these ideas can be found here:
And here:
And here:
And here:
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I really do hope we get to a point where we can test DNA for hets, that’ll be extremely useful. Also downright cool. Thanks, @t_h_wyman !
@dugglc1, if you’ve got Snows in the clutch, your female is Het Amel and both parents are het for Anery. Odds are your dark babies are Aneries rather than Charcoal. Can’t say for certain, but it’s much more likely . If you want to post pics of everybody we can have a look and maybe some ideas.
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They are all stacked up in their tubs right now but Sunday is feeding day so i will try to get some decent pics of the ones that i’m not sure of and post them Sunday evening.
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Picture day didn’t go good lol. Everybody in question is in shed except for one. This is one i think is snow. Not a good pic but she just wasn’t having it.
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That looks more like a Blizzard to me, but you’ll have to wait for someone with more experience to confirm. A snow usually has a rather prominent pattern, this one blends in much more which leads me to think Blizzard, in which case your darker hatchlings would indeed be Charcoals.
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There are 3 that i think are charcoal, but all 3 are in shed today so i didn’t bother trying to get pictures. I did have 2 like this one but i have to go get tubs with latches because i have already lost 6 babies due to them squeezing between the tub edge and lid and popping the lid loose. On my way to go find some now.
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That baby does look more like Amel+Charcoal than Snow, meaning Amel and Charcoal.
Dang, I’m really sorry you’ve lost so many babies!! I hope you’re able to find them.
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No luck finding the babies. I lost one of my breeders due to my kid leaving the door open a few weeks ago but knowing what a pig she is i put her enclosure in the floor overnight with two mice inside and left the front open just enough for her to get in. When i woke up there she was too fat to crawl back through the small gap i left in the door. Haven’t seen any trace of the babies and i tried the same thing with them.
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I am glad you got your adult escapee back. I hate to say it but those babies are going to require a search and rescue effort if you hope to see them again. If they’re currently in blue or recently shed, they’re not likely to feel a lot of pressure from hunger at this point. They’re more likely to seek security/ safety. In their little snakey minds, that likely means somewhere quiet, snug, and dark. You’ve already discovered that, unfortunately, it doesn’t take much of a gap to be big enough for a baby corn snake to squeeze though. Unless you have airlocks, they can go right under any interior doors.
Your best bet for seeing somebody is to check along baseboards with a flashlight after dark once the house is quiet. They usually travel along walls rather than venturing across the open space in a room. They may be attracted to water, which they’ll need anyway. You can try putting some out along with a hide or three. I’d you have cats or dogs, keep an eye on them as they may well point you to the escapees.
Wishing you luck.
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