ID Walkthrough Take 2

[inspirationexotics]

Hey y’all! I did this same thing last year and y’all seemed to like it, so I decided to do it again this year. I have a clutch of 6 babies that just hatched from a Black Pewter DG het Amur (Cryptic) X Leopard Chocolate Vanilla het DG, and I figured I’d walk y’all through my process for IDing them and the conclusions I ended up coming to!

So again, the pairing is Black Pewter DG het Amur (Cryptic) X Leopard Chocolate Vanilla het DG. All babies therefore are 50% possibly het amur (the EU line of cryptic), roughly half were expected to be visual DG from a het to visual pairing, and the incomplete dominant genes involved are pastel, black pastel, vanilla, leopard, and chocolate.

Baby #1: black pastel vanilla desert ghost 50% poss het amur
This baby is definitely visual desert ghost, noted by the brighter color and very clean pattern. It’s definitely black pastel with the classic BP pattern. However, with how much flaming is happening, the slightly wonky pattern, and the very blushed out head, I strongly suspect this one is also vanilla. Vanilla is often more subtle than fire but has a lot of the same traits - brightening, blushing, etc.

Baby #2: leopard vanilla desert ghost 50% poss het amur
Another visual desert ghost, told by the headstamp, cleanliness of pattern, and color. This one is leopard - it has the traditional leopard headstamp and pattern. However, its headstamp is also significantly brighter than what I would expect. That could be desert ghost, but paired with the slight wonkiness of pattern and the nice bright yellow, it means this one is also vanilla.

Baby #3: Leopard desert ghost 50% poss het amur
This one is another visual desert ghost due to the cleanliness and sharpness of pattern and color. Also very obviously leopard with the traditional headstamp and pattern! I believe this one is just a leopard desert ghost. The other option is this is leopard vanilla chocolate desert ghost, as the pattern looks pretty similar to mom, but I suspect just leo. I’ll probably do a shed test on this one.

Baby #4: Black pewter leopard chocolate desert ghost (poss vanilla) 50% poss het amur
The white and gray pattern of this one tells me immediately that it’s desert ghost black pewter (black pastel pastel), as the color is almost identical to dad. The stripe down the back and the connected pattern on the sides tells me that it’s also leopard. I believe it’s chocolate because of the pattern reduction and the black scales around the lateral pattern, but that could also be caused by the het amur if it’s present. It could also very well be vanilla with how white and bright it is, but I’m not sure. This one is probably my holdback and I will definitely do a shed test on her.

Baby #5: Leopard chocolate desert ghost 50% poss het amur
This clutch absolutely killed it with the desert ghost odds. This is the 5th visual desert ghost. It has the typical leopard headstamp and pattern, but because the eye stripe is thinner and the pattern is a bit reduced - in addition to the more copper-golden color compared to the more yellow of the other two leo combos - this one I believe is also chocolate.

Baby #6: pastel leopard vanilla het desert ghost 50% poss het amur
This one is the only baby that is NOT visual desert ghost. The pattern and color aren’t clean enough - for a pastel leo desert ghost combo I would expect pure bright yellow and black with a pure white headstamp, and this baby has too much brown to be visual desert ghost, so it’s a het. The fading on the head and yellow color indicates pastel, and the headstamp and pattern indicate leopard. However, the headstamp is a bit lighter than what I would expect for just a pastel leopard, and the pattern is busier and has a lot of blushing in it. Therefore, this one is also vanilla, I believe.

Hope y’all enjoy these walkthroughs! Here are a few pics of all babies together. As usual, if anyone has questions or wants to check my IDs, go on ahead!

[cmsreptiles]

Beautiful little babies, I really like the look of #4 with the solid white unbroken stripe down its back.

I enjoy the idea of this walkthrough guide, its super helpful on pointing out some of the details that are harder to discern, like the vanilla vs fire thing.

I do a lot of my morph research through MM’s Morphpedia but its also nice to see these notes done by other breeders too!

[gabonica1]

All of them are beautiful. No. 4 would be my hold back too.

[inspirationexotics]

Thank you!! I like to do these walkthrough IDs to help folks get used to the process of IDing animals. It’s something I know a lot of people struggle with so if my thought process helps anyone, I consider that a win.

[gina5678]

Yes, you are a huge help to those of us who struggle constantly with trying to learn how to ID. Those babies are all pretty, and I’d also keep #4.

[bryanf88]

Love this idea, it’s super helpful! Thank you for taking the time to do this. It’s so rad.

I didn’t know that whatever Het traits they have were also something that can show up visually in the animal. I always just thought it was a gene they carried and can pass it along when they’re bred and have babies. And those babies would have the visuals of those Het Traits.

[inspirationexotics]

By the definition of “recessive,” what you’re saying is the case. But in reality, you can make some pretty educated guesses about what hets animals carry based on subtle changes to pattern/color, which is why I don’t tend to believe most BP genes are actually recessive. In this case, I thought the sire would prove to be het amur (I bought him as a poss het) based on his pattern and I was right, so now I apply the same knowledge to take a guess at which offspring might carry the het. It’s not 100% reliable, but enough for me to make a fairly confident educated guess.