Well I am moving right along with my collection and will be doing some breeding in the spring. However I am having difficulties in finding some sort of roadmap of genetics (for lack of a better term). Now what I mean by this is; If I am planning a project to create offspring with the trait I want, how can I identify and develop the program to assure the desire results.
Let's say for argument sake I have the following:
1.0.0. - where the trait desired is the colouration
0.1.0 - where the trait desired is the pattern
when bred together it would be generally expected that I would end up with
50% het for "colour"
50% het for "pattern"
but you would expect to see 1/2 the litter looking like the male and 1/2 looking like the female. Now if one of the offspring from this clutch is bred back to the original male , so we say the offspring showed the desired colour, and the offspring was a female then she would be bred back to the original male to produce new offspring with a stronger gene for the colour. I guess this would be considered at 66% het for "colour"?
So if the 66% het females were bred back to the original male again then am I on track to say that the offspring from this pairing would be 100% het for "colour" and that, at that time it would be deemed proven for a specific genetic trait. At which you would breed one of the offspring from the 100% het group back to the original male to have a solid trait in their offspring. Hence a proven strain.
Hope all of that made sense
So I guess the big question is
(a.) Am I way off base in my thinking and understanding of how the genetics are mapped for a given trait.
and
(b.) Is there a general guideline to breeding somewhere on the net,in a computer program, in books, or through personal breeding efforts; somewhere that will help me get to the desired trait. And how do you identify both the dominant and recessive traits in the animals?
and
(c.) when breeding different subspecies are their acceptable guidelines for producing genetic crosses. I am not talking about breeding kings and corns together. I am thinking of breeding different kings together. Can this be done to achieve desired affects? Say for example, I wish to take my male Lp. g. splendida and cross with female Lp. g. californiae (albino-striped) to develop an albino patterned splendida. Or say taking a female greybanded and crossing with a thayer's variable to produce a stronger or more desired colour in the off spring?
I regularly hear of people breeding for specific looks in the offspring (eg. bigger bands, darker colours, less tipping, etc..you know what I mean).
I find this element of the hobby fascinating and I am looking forward to producing my first clutch. For the time being I will stick with a proven group of Coastal phase Lp. g. californiae but I do wish to experiment down stream with both colour and pattern variations and your qualified answers as always, are greatly appreciated.
Thank for your time.
Jim
Threaded Mode