# Corn snake question re: the stripe gene



## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

I have eggs hatching from the following couple.

Lavender het Hypo Motley x Normal het Hypo Lavender Amel Stripe

Now I've been talking to a large scale breeder of corn snakes who swears to me that the offspring will be possible double het motley / stripe. I thought this shared one locus, and therefore it would be possible to get visual motleys from a het motley x het stripe, but he says absolutely not.

Of course I could be patient, and wait for them to hatch, but as I'm not 100% sure of the hets (were brought from someone who bought them from a breeder but I don't know who the breeder is and have no actual evidence of the hets other than what they produce)

I worked it out as a 3% chance of getting a Hypo Lav Motley from that combo (probably not going to happen but I have 20 eggs to work with so you never know), whereas my friend (who produces thousands of corns a year so should know!) says the best I will get is Hypo Lavender poss het Motley / Stripe (and poss het Amel of course but that's a wasted het, I won't really be taking that into consideration).

But overall, if parents are definitely het motley, and het stripe, out of 20 eggs - I should expect to see some visual motleys I thought. He insists there is no way I will see visual motleys from that combo. If I don't see visual motleys - is it because he's right, or is it because the parents hets are either inaccurate, or just bad odds.


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## Blackecho (Jun 30, 2008)

Athravan said:


> I thought this shared one locus, and therefore it would be possible to get visual motleys from a het motley x het stripe,


That's how I saw it too.


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## vetdebbie (Jan 4, 2008)

Athravan said:


> I have eggs hatching from the following couple.
> 
> Lavender het Hypo Motley x Normal het Hypo Lavender Amel Stripe
> 
> ...


 
Argh brain hurting!

Motley and stripe do share the same locus. 2 copies of the motley gene = motley baby. 1 copy of motley and 1 copy of stripe gene = motley baby (either of these may or may not be "stripey motleys"). One copy of motley OR one copy of stripe = normal. You knew this obviously! You could indeed get a hypo lav motley out of that combination if the odds are with you.

Corncalc says:

1 / 16 Motley
3 / 16 Lavender 
3 / 16 Normal 
3 / 16 Hypo 
1 / 16 Lavender, Motley 
1 / 16 Hypo, Motley
3 / 16 Hypo Lavender 
1 / 16 Hypo Lavender, Motley


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## vetdebbie (Jan 4, 2008)

In summary you were right, he was wrong. A surprising number of corn snake breeders don't understand the genetics of motley/stripe, or amel/ultra for that matter.


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## bladeblaster (Sep 30, 2008)

yes mate your right, you would potentially produce motely-stripes.

Perhaps he means you wouldn't produce 'pure' motelys?


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