DH Sunglow breeding

Any breeders out there that can tell me about the DH sunglow genetics? I'm getting a breeding pair in the next few days and I'd like to know everything I can about them in the meantime.

I'll try to keep this as painless as possible. DH sunglow is the combination of two very different traits. The 'longhand' name would be hypomelanistic, heterozygous for albinism...which can be shortened to hypo het albino.

Hypomelanism is a dominant trait, which means that the heterozygous and homozygous forms look alike (but different from the wild type). When you breed a dominant trait to a normal (wild type), about half the babies will display that trait - officially, those are heterozygous, because they inherited the gene from only one parent. When you breed two animals that show that trait, about 25% will be normal, 50% will be (visual) hets , and 25% will be homozygous (meaning they get the gene from both parents). With this trait, and some others, the homozygous form is commonly referred to as "super"...so you would get 50% hypos, and 25% super hypos.

Albinism is a recessive trait, which means that the gene (allele) must be passed from both parents in order for the trait to be visible. A heterozygous animal, as described above, only gets it from one...which means it looks normal, but carries the trait. When breeding a het albino x het albino, you get a breakdown similar to illustrated with the hypo x hypo - 25% normal babies, 50% het albino, and 25% albino.

SO, breeding a DH sunglow (hypo het albino) x DH sunglow, you should see the following:
- about 75% of the babies will be hypomelanistic (remember, you can't reliably tell which are het vs homo, but 25% will be homo/super)
- about 25% of the babies will be albinos
- babies that display both traits are hypomelanistic albinos, aka sunglows.

So much for the basics....now, look at the babies that don't come out as albino.
With a het x het breeding, going by the percentages listed above, 1/4 normal, 2/4 hets, 1/4 albino. Lets make it simple and say it was a litter of 4 (I like easy math). 1 normal baby, 2 hets, 1 albino. <removes the albino from the table>. There are 3/4 remaining, 3 snakes...1 is normal, 2 hets. 2 out of the 3 are hets, so there is a 2/3, or 66% chance that you will get a het if you randomly pick one of those babies. That is where the designation 66% het comes from. (a het x a normal will result in half the babies being hets, but you don't know which ones....dropping it to simplest terms you have 2 snakes, 1 is, 1 isn't - you've got a 50% chance of picking the het, so that litter would be called 50% hets)
The resultant hypos from a DH sunglow x DHssunglow litter are "possible supers"
Did your brain melt yet?

yes it did

lmao but I understand now XD Thanks so so much, did your hands fall off yet from typing?

LOL, Harald is used to typing those full page responses I think.. he tends to be pretty thorough :P

lol well thats good for me in this case XD Build up those hand muscles Harald! XD

I should have mentioned (I did intend to, but it got lost) that the numbers are based on statistics, and not precise when applied to small sample sizes. Individual results can vary somewhat from clutch to clutch, litter to litter, year to year. Are you familiar with the Punnett square?

Also, regarding hypos - you will see considerable misuse of the terms dominant and codominant, and I wouldn't be surprised if you found posts that state there are no such thing as het for hypo (I know I have seen them, and spread that misinformation before I knew better). I tried to explain why I used the terms I did with reference to that trait, but people will still dispute it.
Geneticswizard.com offers some good definitions/explanations, as well as calculating the outcomes of breedings (you have to know what type of trait you are dealing with)

Yeah, I know the punnent square genetic table, I just wasnt to sure about the double het sunglow. He showed me a pic, they're BEAUTIFUl snakes, says I can pick any pair I want so I cant wait. This is a small pic from his phone, but its just one of them, he says they're almost as bright as his hypo

Originally Posted by Nagini

I just wasnt to sure about the double het sunglow.......he says they're almost as bright as his hypo

Maybe because dh sunglows ARE hypos?
For the record, not all hypos are created equal. The better colors come from hypo x hypo, and especially when done for several generations. (of course, the more hypos in a given animals lineage, the greater the likelihood of it being homozygous, too)

It was explained to me, just look at it like a pair of normals, het for albino being bred, because the Salmon gene will happen randomly through out the litter. Could affect 20% or 100% of the litter. It all depends on how the genes connect. If a normal gets a Salmon gene, it will be a Salmon. If an albino gets the Salmon gene, it will be a Sunglow.

Salmons are cool. They ain't "just" hypo, so IMO that's an inappropriate description. Increased reds/oranges, and sometimes a bit of striping going on is also known to happen pretty regularly.

Good luck, you'll have to share some pics if you get them.