Intro to genetics?

Hello all! Thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully respond, it will be much appreciated.

I’ve been in the reptile hobby for quite some time, having had reptiles growing up as companion animals. Well, I’ve finally decided to make the leap and try my hand at breeding, and I’m starting with the basics, ball pythons. I have a relatively good grasp on most all of the genetics and how mixing certain morphs can get desired results. I also know the taboo morphs to not mix for fear of neurological issues/birth defects.

My real question is with the recessive genes, how do you end up with things like 66% het or 33% het? It seems like pairing a visual recessive to a het recessive carrier is how you get that, but I’d like to make sure I have all my information straight before I dive in, and I can’t find any clear info on the subject.

TIA!

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Welcome to the community! Really there is no such thing either an animal is het or it is not. These numbers represent the odds of it being het. The odds factor in things like visual to het or het to het. I hope That makes sense?

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It does! It’s not quite as complicated as I thought it was, so that makes this easier. My first planned pairing is a Bamboo poss het Pied to a Mystic poss het Pied, so I wanted to know how that worked if they happened to prove out with some pieds in the first pairing for the ones who don’t end up being pied

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Glad I could help I’m not a geneticist but I know a couple lol. Good luck with your pairing! Let us know how it turns out!

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For non visuals, if you get visuals, that means both parents are het. Het to het is a 66% probability they carry the gene. If you get no visuals then there is a change your poss hets aren’t. You would be best trying to prove possible hets with a visual to start with also.

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In case anyone finds this thread in the future thought I’d add a visual representation I created for my Instagram. I’m doing a whole series on genetics over there :grin:

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