Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Heterozygous Genetics - Not my favorite thing.


Well Hello again, I'm terribly sorry if I've kept you all waiting for another update, but I started at a new command earlier this month, and I'm still trying to get the schedule down. Unfortunately it's taken some time away from my Blog, but alas everything is squared away.

Heterozygous Genetics - By far one of my 'least' favorite things when it comes to breeding. Not because of the process to prove them out, or waiting for that perfect season to hit on your het's, but because people are sketchy, and will do anything for a dollar, including lie. 

Take these pictures for example, these are my 2 personal 100% Het Albino Ball Python's. I bought them from BHB Reptiles, Brian, in July and I have them for sale at the moment. This pair has a guarantee on their genetic's, they come from a reputable man in the Herp Community, and I trust his knowledge when it comes to his animals.
(No Sales Pitch intended)

The 2 things are VERY important when your purchasing animals with recessive gene's. Mainly because if you look at the 2 pictures above, what do you see? You see 2, what appear to be, normal ball pythons. In fact, they are NOT. They are 'Het' for the Albino gene. 

Here is why those 2 things I mentioned earlier are important:

Anyone can go to a pet store, buy a normal looking animal, and claim it's Het for ANYTHING. When you slap Het on it's label, what does that do? Increase the price. Maybe not thousands of dollars, but sometimes they can be a pretty penny. If you can't afford to buy the 'high dollar' animals like myself, you have start with Het gene animals, and build yourself up.

Buy from a REPUTABLE SOURCE - Just because your local pet store write's 100% Het Clown on it doesn't mean it's true. That just means they get to slap a few extra digit's in the price tag. Even your local 'breeders' can be unreliable sources. Get to know your people, learn what type of people they are, what they do, before you spend your HARD EARNED money on stuff.

KNOWLEDGE is POWER - This statement has so much truth to it, it's hard to summarize it. I'll just give an example. If you don't know anything about genetic's, you may get lost here.....When I was new to Ball Python's/Reptile's, I had no idea what I was doing, had no idea they had different color mutations, nothing. I was in my local pet store, (Not AJ), and the salesman/douchebag was trying to sell me a 100% Het Spider Ball Python. I wish I could make this up. I had no idea, but like always, I do a little research before I buy. I now know that Spider is in fact a 'Dominant' gene, and there's no such thing as Het Spider, Pastel, Pinstripe ... etc. Had I not done my research, I would have paid $200 for a $20 Normal Ball Python. If you don't know, ask. If you don't have anyone to ask, go online, google stuff. It's fun, and you learn from it.

That's really my rant on Het's. I apologize for the grammatical errors, as well as punctuation. I haven't typed in a while.

I hope you all have a great night, and I will be writing again tomorrow. Any topic suggestions? I only have 12 followers, I'd love more! Spread the word!

God Bless!

3 comments:

  1. I remember that guy who tried to sell you that. I now know what to watch out for.

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  2. Good to hear things are settling in for you man. Change in post can be a rough one to adjust to. Good post as well, I have seen a few ads on craigslist for het albinos and I just cant bring myself to look at the snakes no matter the deal. Just cant trust them.

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