Im trying to get in to Gravel, Highways ect. I recently purchased an Ivory female (super YB, gravel). Ive been looking for a male and ive noticed that several of them say “Gravel or YB”. What does this mean?
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Gravel and YB are in the same complex called the super stripe complex.
When two genes are in the same complex, they act like a super when an animal has two of them. That means that every offspring from that female would pass on one of the genes in that complex to their offspring, but never both unless the male is also carrying them.
That complex also means that your Ivory cannot be gravel because Ivory is a super yellowbelly.
If your female is YB and Gravel, she’s actually a highway, not ivory.
Gravel and YB are very difficult to ID one from the other. You need to either test breed them or have them shed tested to find out.
I would get an male that is definitely gravel in order to make highways.
But do remember the BP market is very saturated at the moment so selling can be difficult. Also make sure to have space and a reptile specialist vet lined up in case of emergencies
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Thank you for the info. You are very knowledgeable and im glad there is a platform like this for beginners. I appreciate it.
If you don’t mind me asking, you say the the BP market is saturated. Does that mean that these fall under the same complex? Like i said im a beginner. I’ve been reading a lot but i still have a lot to learn. None of my snakes will be read to breed for a year or more, so i still have some time
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So to clarify and provide further info into what @armiyana was saying, gravel and YB are in the same complex. This really means that the location on the snakes DNA is shared between these genes.
So for simplicity sake think about each genetic location having space for 2 copies of a gene, no more. That would mean that you can have up to two copies of a gene on one location, which would give you a single gene form, or the “super” form. (Heterozygous for single gene, homozygous for 2 copies of the gene).
When Christina said they’re in the same complex, that means they reside at the same genetic location on the snake. So you could have two copies of the yellowbelly gene, two copies of the gravel gene, or one of each. (There are other genes that are in this complex as well, just covering these as they are the ones we’re discussing here). You cannot have a super yb gravel, because that would be 3 copies of the same complex in one location, which isn’t possible.
Regarding the saturation, she simply means that there are many, many breeders out there. Sometimes up to 50,000 ball pythons are listed on morphmarket alone. This isn’t said to scare you away, more so just make you aware that you’ll likely need to hold on to the babies, feed them, and care for them for quite some time before they’re actually able to be sold, especially if you aren’t working with something that is very high In demand.
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Thank you Nathan!
I do tend to oversimplify things sometimes, hahah.
@lilace343 Nathan basically nailed it with the answer. There’s just so many people breeding BPs right now that it can make it tough to get off the ground. Especially when working with some of the more common genes.
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