# boa hets?



## CrawlingRuby (Dec 28, 2009)

i was wondering how will you tell which one is a het out to the clutch 
like 
 Kahl Albino
 Kahl Albino het. Anerythristic 

 Salmon(Hypo) het. Kahl Albino 
 Salmon(Hypo) het. Kahl Albino ~ Anerythristic 


thank you


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## paulh (Sep 19, 2007)

Pedigree and breeding test are the most reliable methods.

A non-anerythristic boa with one anerythristic (or anerythristic combination) parent must be het anerythristic by pedigree.

A non-anerythristic boa with one or two het anerythristic parents must be raised to adulthood and have a breeding test done.

A non-albino boa with one albino (or albino combination) parent must be het albino by pedigree.

A non-albino boa with one or two het albino parents must be raised to adulthood and have a breeding test done.

I have seen claims that holding a possible het albino's head up to a light and trying to see light through the head can be used to distinguish het albinos from normals. I have not tried it myself. If it works, it would be most likely to work with newborn snakes.


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## bothrops (Jan 7, 2007)

CrawlingRuby said:


> i was wondering how will you tell which one is a het out to the clutch
> like
> Kahl Albino
> Kahl Albino het. Anerythristic
> ...



You can't tell just by looking. 

Due to the fact that these mutations are recessive to normal, this means that when an animal only has one copy of the mutation it can't be detected visually.

A normal animal and a normal het anerytheristic will look identical.

An albino and an albino het anerytheristic will look identical.


As Paul has mentioned above, the only way to actually find out if an animal actually is 'het' for a recessive mutation is to breed it.


If you breed a normal het albino to a normal, then the expected offspring is 

50% normal het albino
50% normal

However, all the animals in the litter will LOOK the same. The only way you will know which is which is by breeding. As the percentages above are simply probability, ALL the babies will be sold as 'normal 50% possible het albino' as each animal has a 50% chance of being het albino and a 50% chance of being 'not het albino'.







For the record, I've not heard about the 'holding babies up to the light' thing Paul, but I have heard that 'het albino' animals tend to have a noticeably brighter silver colouration to the top half of their iris than their 'non-het' siblings. I've not seen any quantitative data of this though.


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