how do you know ig your ball python has the het gene

looking to buy one and was wondering how you can tell if they have it and how do breeders know?

There is no way to tell, they look no different than a normal.

Breeders know they are hets because they either produced them themselves by breeding a visual to a normal or a het. OR they bought them from a reputable person that did the same thing and sold them to them with a paperwork guarantee of genetics.

Bottom line -- if you want a het that is guaranteed to carry the genetics that it is labeled as, buy it from someone with a very good reputation.

An animal has many genes. Most all of them come in pairs, one from each parent.

Heterozygous means having an unmatched pair of whatever gene you are talking about. Neither copy by it's self is het, it's just the condition of the pair not matching that is referred to as a heterozygous genotype. Generally a het would have one normal (aka wild type) version of whatever gene you are talking about paired with one mutant copy of that same gene.

With some types of mutations you can see the hets because they are visible mutants. Ball pythons that are heterozygous for the pastel, cinnamon, or spider genes for example show as those respective phenotypes. It only takes one mutant copy of those genes to make the ball python look abnormal.

With recessive genes the heterozygous animals are supposed to look normal so the main way someone would know a hatchling (i.e. not old enough to be proven by breeding yet) was a het would be to know that one of it's parents only had the mutant gene to give. For example, a visible albino has two mutant copies of the albino gene (it is homozygous albino – with a recessive mutation that is necessary to make the visible morph). Because the albino doesn't have a normal copy of that gene to give we know it gave the albino version to all of it's offspring so we know any normal looking offspring are heterozygous for albino.

thank you guys i just really didnt know that i thought you could tell by looking at it

Originally Posted by lebron23dirk41

thank you guys i just really didnt know that i thought you could tell by looking at it

To add to that, there are some people who believe they can tell a het from a normal in some cases, and seem to be really good at picking them out too.

Originally Posted by Mooing Tricycle

To add to that, there are some people who believe they can tell a het from a normal in some cases, and seem to be really good at picking them out too.

I can pick a het albino from a normal out of a clutch.
Whatever ones bite me are the hets. Really. It's uncanny. Het albinos HATE me.

Originally Posted by SPJ

I can pick a het albino from a normal out of a clutch.
Whatever ones bite me are the hets. Really. It's uncanny. Het albinos HATE me.

So this is an old topic...sorry to drag it up. But my Het Ghost is so much differnt from my normal male. He has almost no yellow...very chocolate colored and has major blushing. I bought him at last weekend's Narbc show in Dulles. As I was going around the show, several people stopped me and asked what he was. He is that different. When I told people Het Ghost...they all replied something like, oh...that explains it.
So it that true? That het ghosts can show visible signs?

Originally Posted by lebron23dirk41

thank you guys i just really didnt know that i thought you could tell by looking at it

Yea, pretty much comes down to trusting the source at purchase. Take care!

Anthony Allis
ExoticsExpress@aol.com

From what I hear second hand het ghost do have a different look to them. Busy pattern with a lighter almost partial ghost look.

I side with the party that believes all hets have some type of visual trait indicators.