Het question

[pitviper10]

Im fairly new to snakes and still learning some of the terms. A term that ive been hearing a lot is het. so what exactly is a het? i know its got something to do with breeding, but thats about it. can someone answere this please?? :dumb:

[-okapi-]

a het is an animal that has genetic information that is not expressed on the outside, but can be passed on to future generations. I dont know how much you know about biology, but there are recessive and dominant genes (Dominant = capital letter; Recessive = lowercase letter). A het has one dominant gene and one recessive gene for one particular trait. The dominant trait is the one we can see externally on a snake (in terms of body color, eye color, etc.)
If an animal is a het it is most likely that the person who bred it was tryin to express the recessive gene, but this particular baby has 1 dominant and 1 recessive, thus it is a het. Sorry if im confusing.

[-okapi-]

there is a formula for figuring out the probability, or chance of an organism having particular traits: the punnet square.

RR = dominant dominant; Rr = dominant recessive (het); rr = recessive recessive

say we breed a "RR" with a "rr"

R R
r Rr Rr


r Rr Rr

Now if you understand the square (its ok if you dont, this is probably 10th or 11th grader stuff) you see that four fourths (100%) of the offspring are hets (Rr)

If you breed 2 hets

R r
R RR Rr


r Rr rr

you get 1/4 of the offspring are RR, 1/2 are hets and 1/4 are rr.
hets are nice to have, they are cheaper than the rr and if you breed two you have a 25% chance of getting a rr.

Again sorry if im confusing

[Boakid]

Great explanation.

[-okapi-]

thank you, but i dont know if a nonbiology major/studyer can make sense of it (lol)

[pitviper10]

i understood the first part but the second part was a bit confusing, but anyways i have general knowledge of what a het is. Thanx a lot!!!

[-okapi-]

good =D (about the part you understand) That second post is a little more advanced biology. Im a biology major so i kinda got carried away =p

[ReptiGramma]

Hi Jay,..........It's Gramma.......I'm not sure which came first.....The reptiles or the very intelligent kids who own them. I am very impressed by the questions asked and answers given by all of you very young people!!! Reptile kids seem to have a foot on a higher rung than most....Keep climbing!!! :medbigsmi
Love ya,
Gramma :sun: