# Motley striped?



## spirit975 (May 15, 2007)

How do you know if something is actually visually motley striped, rather than stripe het motley etc? Can stripes still carry the motley pattern without being true motley? Ditto with stripe?

Sorry if its sounds like a silly question!:lol2:


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## Layla (Feb 12, 2007)

Well i cant answer any of your questions but can show you my Ghost motley/stripe aka Ribbon motley. I am told Motley is more dominant over stripe...but dont take my word on it I get confused at basic genetics!


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## Layla (Feb 12, 2007)

bump for ya lol!


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## captaincaveman (Nov 6, 2006)

I like these serpenco picture to show the difference, even if a stripe/motley has a full stripe, it isn't a visual stripe because of how the stripe pattern looks, visually stripe/motley strips have elongated saddle coloured stripes down their spines, where stripes have their background colour down their spines and are 4 lined stripes

heres a butter stripe










and a butter stripe/motley










normally with stripe/motleys even fully striped ones, the stripe is irregular in its width


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

spirit975 said:


> How do you know if something is actually visually motley striped, rather than stripe het motley etc? Can stripes still carry the motley pattern without being true motley? Ditto with stripe?


You've actually got it backwards.

*True Stripe* is recessive to motley - the only way to get a true four-lined stripe is to have a homozygous stripe animal (m^s/m^s). 

*Motley* is dominant to stripe, and can appear (*in any motley pattern*) with either homozygous motley (m/m) or motley het stripe (m/m^s).

Both traits are recessive to Normal "Not Motley or Stripe". 

*You cannot tell by looking whether a Motley is homozygous motley or motley het stripe.* 

*"Ribbon/Zipper" motleys* (with the striped-looking pattern that shows a top line with an irregular width, and the side stripes also have irregular widths) do not always carry Stripe. They can be either homozygous motley or motley het stripe. Calling them "Striped Motley" or "Motley Stripe" is misleading. 

*"Circleback/Hurricane" motleys* (with the pattern of circles along the back, with or without enhanced borders) are not always homozygous motley. They can also be motley het stripe.

Striped animals do not carry Motley - the reason they produce Motleys when bred to a Motley or normal het for Motley is because the Motley gene is *dominant* to Stripe and overrides the visual appearance of Stripe. 

Motley has NOT been shown to be "codominant" to Stripe in any way, shape or form - there are plenty of Circleback Motley het Stripes out there who show that "Ribbon/Zipper motley" is not the phenotype of Motley het Stripe. The only way to prove you have a Motley het Stripe is to breed it to a known Stripe only carrier - if you get true four-lined Stripe offspring, you've got a Motley het Stripe. If you only get Motleys, you've probably got a homozygous Motley.


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## rockkeeper (Apr 5, 2007)

yup,motley the dom over stripe


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## SnakeBreeder (Mar 11, 2007)

Ssthisto said:


> You've actually got it backwards.
> 
> *True Stripe* is recessive to motley - the only way to get a true four-lined stripe is to have a homozygous stripe animal (m^s/m^s).
> 
> ...


Hi Ssthisto
That is well laid out and very informative, 
Cheers
Stephen


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

thats excellent.. i was having a headache abut al this last night cheers


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