# Chances of breeding a piebald veiled chameleon?



## pmcpaul (Sep 11, 2008)

My batch of 32 chameleon eggs have started hatching today. Not sure of the genetics of the parents as they were not originally bought for breeding so didn't get the details at the time. 

Just wondered if there is any chance of getting a/some piebald babies? Both the parents show no piebald colours but as I said before, I am not sure of their genetics.


Any help or advise appreciated.


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## paulh (Sep 19, 2007)

Congratulations on the hatching!

The little I've seen on piebald veiled chameleons is consistent with the mutant gene being recessive to the normal gene. As you have two normal-looking lizards, they couldn't be better than a pair of heterozygotes. The expectation is that 1/4 of the babies from two heterozygotes would be piebalds. If all of the eggs hatch, and none is piebald, then the probability is 99.99% that one or both of the adults is not het piebald.

You said that you didn't pay attention to the parents' genetics at purchase time and did not intend to breed them. So you probably did not pay a premium for lizards from piebald stock. From that, I conclude that the odds are high that the seller believed that both lizards are normals. I could be wrong, of course. But if any of the hatchlings are piebalds, I would say that your luck was phenomenal.

Let us know how the babies come out when they have all hatched, please.


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## pmcpaul (Sep 11, 2008)

Thanks for that. Haven't really looked into the genetics yet so am clueless. Will keep you posted as the rest hatch but so far it is 8 hatchlings and all seem normal.


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## bothrops (Jan 7, 2007)

As Paulh has said, your chances of randomly chancing upon piebalds is practically zero.

good luck with the breeding


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