# Visual Hets



## Jamie_reptiles (Feb 3, 2011)

Was talking to someone today regarding recessive hets and he was saying how he has Royals that are visual het albinos and visual het piebalds. Its been on my mind now all day so wanted to now the score on these visual hets and how you can tell if they are hets because I've always believed that a het looks perfectly normal. They only differ when the are bred together and then you get the albinos and piebalds. Can someone clear this up for me? maybe show some Pics?

Thanks
Jamie


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## paulh (Sep 19, 2007)

Snakes that have a heterozygous gene pair made up of a normal gene and a recessive mutant gene (like piebald or albino) do look normal. That's part of the definition of a recessive mutant gene. Now, that does not always hold true in every case for every recessive mutant gene, but it's true much more often then not.

I've heard claims that ringer ball pythons are heterozygous piebalds, but I've also heard claims that some ringers are and other ringers are not. So I am sceptical. I don't have pictures of a ringer, but I think there are some on the net.

There is a claim that heterozygous albino boa constrictors have lighter eye color as babies when you try to look through the head against a bright light. I've not had any het albinos to try it with, but it may be valid. I do not know whether this is good only for babies or for longer.

Ask the guy what he looks for in these heterozygous snakes. Someone more knowledgable than I may be able to confirm or deny what he says.


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## ba1l3y76 (May 8, 2011)

Would you friend be referring to het markers? I have heard of Pied markers, not sure about albino?


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## aidanbeckey (Apr 9, 2009)

There's markers for pieds not albino. Tho my pastel het albino is a lttle extra lighter then a normal pastel. Whether its jus a nice example of a pastel or due to being het is debatable. Mojave n lessers are visual hets for blue eyed lucys and fires het for black eyed lucys. But not sure if u can refer to them as a het coz its jus co-dom and the super version which is the same for all co-doms


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## Jamie_reptiles (Feb 3, 2011)

Cleared it up for me. 
Thanks


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## ern79 (Jul 26, 2007)

people often refer to train track belly marks as a marker for pied, this is not always the case


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## bothrops (Jan 7, 2007)

aidanbeckey said:


> There's markers for pieds not albino. Tho my pastel het albino is a lttle extra lighter then a normal pastel. Whether its jus a nice example of a pastel or due to being het is debatable. Mojave n lessers are visual hets for blue eyed lucys and fires het for black eyed lucys. But not sure if u can refer to them as a het coz its jus co-dom and the super version which is the same for all co-doms



Yes you can refer to them as 'het' as that's exactly what they are.

'het' stands for 'heterozygous' and simply means that there are two *different* copies of the gene at that particular gene pair.

In the case of lessers, mojaves, pastels etc they have one copy of the mutated gene and one copy of the normal version of the gene and are therefore _definitively_ 'heterozygous'

The term 'het' has absolutely nothing to do with whether a gene is codominant, dominant or recessive. It doesn't mean 'hidden' or 'a normal carrying a recessive gene'. ALL it means is 'different genes' :2thumb:


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## aidanbeckey (Apr 9, 2009)

So u could refer to all co-Doms as het for the super form?


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## markhill (Sep 22, 2006)

aidanbeckey said:


> So u could refer to all co-Doms as het for the super form?


you could because they are: victory:


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## tozhan (Sep 14, 2011)

Visual hets refers to heterozygous co-dominant gene. A gene that will change the phenotype of the animal with only one copy of the gene but will further change the phenotype of the animal if homozygous (2 copies).

In the strictest sense, recessive gene look no different to normal type when heterozygous and must be bred as homozygous to alter the phenotype.


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## macR1 (Dec 10, 2009)

He must mean visual het markers, iv seen pied markers and iv read about lav albino markers but iv never read or seen albino or ghost markers.


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