Genetics questions you were afraid to ask...

[teiryklav]

reading some of the thread you're really good at genetics! how did you study it?
wow. thanks of all the answers

[Reptile-newb]

Is creating fertile hybrids harming rarer creature's bloodlines?

[Ssthisto]

Yes and no.

No, it doesn't, because breeding a pure male animal of a rare species - like, say, a Boelen's python - to a pure female of some other species does not render the male "impure" - he's still all Boelen's and can be used to breed more Boelen's babies. Same goes for a female, but you've got to account for possible sperm retention.

Yes, it can, because some unscrupulous people will try to pass off a hybrid AS a pure animal, or the animal will go through a couple of owners, losing information along the way, until it's not known that the animal in question is a hybrid.

[repkid]

Originally Posted by teiryklav

see if i buy a female pastel because the female spider is more expensive (of course!) then musn't i buy male spider that is more expensive either than male pastel??

Yes however males can at times be a lot less cheaper than females. Also males can breed a lot earlier than females. So say you were buying a female adult pastel for about £700. An adult female spider may cost £1000. So it's pretty obvious which you are going to choose right? Then as males can breed pretty much a year after hatching you could buy a hatchling male spider for £300, wait and year and they will both be ready to breed. A male pastel may cost about £200 at the least for a hatchling.



So add it up

Female spider £1000 + Male pastel £200 = £1200

Female pastel £700 + Male spider £300 = £1000

Remember there is not normally anymore of a difference than £100 between a male and a female of the same morph. Age is the key reason for the price difference here.

[Fried_frog]

Which leopard gecko morph has solid black eyes?

[Ssthisto]

There are two that *can* have solid-coloured black eyes.

The first one is the recessive Eclipse gene; this one isn't quite so reliable as you can get animals that have "snake" eyes with some coloured iris, or even one fully dark eye and one normal-looking eye.

The second one is any animal with two copies of a mutant gene on the Mack Snow locus. I know that's a complicated way to say it, but there's at least three ways to get a "Super Snow" that has black eyes:
Homozygous Mack Snow
Het Mack Snow, het TUG Snow
Het Mack Snow, het Gem Snow
I don't know if Het TUG, het Gem makes a Super Snow.
These will ALWAYS have solid coloured dark eyes, in both eyes, and do not have the "snake eye" effect.

You also occasionally see snake eyes (but I've never seen a pair of solid black eyes) in Blizzards; this doesn't seem to be simple to reproduce. I also noticed that with this, when I had a blazing blizzard who was heavily snake-eyed on one side (the girl in my avatar - the eye in the photo is the less snake-eyed side) she appeared to be blind, or nearly so, on that side.

[Fried_frog]

Many thanks!

When you say homozygous mack snow, do you mean i would have to breed two macks together, with no hets?

[Ssthisto]

Having hets doesn't matter particularly - but "homozygous Mack Snow" means that you WOULD have to breed either:

Mack Snow X Mack Snow (25% chance of solid-eyed Super Snow per egg)
Mack Snow X Super Snow (50% chance of solid-eyed Super Snow per egg)
Super Snow X Super Snow (100% chance of solid-eyed Super Snow per egg)

Having hets (particularly any strain of albino) might mean you get solid red eyes instead of solid black ones (if your super snow baby inherits two copies of the same type of albino, one from each parent).

[karlos79]

hi

im planning on breeding a spider royal and albino together next year and 100% het green ghosts together. ive got the spider albino combo down, just wondering on percentages of green ghosts produced and if the normals are het green ghost and wat percentage?

this will be my first year breeding royals so tryin to get to grips with the percentages!

cheers

[Ssthisto]

You'd have a 25% chance-per-egg of getting a visual ghost out of your het-ghost pairing; the normals will be 66% possible het Ghost.