When viewing an animal in the Photo Gallery, after the description of the animal there will be some additional information available.
Basic Information
The first group of fields you may see in the "Additional Information" portion of the description are general information about the animal. These fields include:
Locality
If an animal was collected from the wild or every captive ancestor of the animal can be traced back to an animal taken from the wild at a given location, the animal is a locality specimen and the locality information is provided in this field.
Morph/Phase
This is the market description of the animal. For example, Abbott's Okeetee.
For Corn Snakes, I almost always will use the current "Cornsnake Morph Guide" as an authority when describing the Morph/Phase of a Corn Snake.
I may occasionally deviate. For example, not all Corn Snakes that are considered to be "Reverse Okeetee" in the trade would qualify as Okeetee phase Corn Snakes if they were not Amel. I think that is unfortunate but that's the way it is.
In order to differentiate Amel corns that are Amel morphs of the Okeetee phase, I use the trade name "Amel Okeetee" for Reverse Okeetee's that would qualify as Okeetee phase Corns if they were not Amel.
Sex
The sex of the animal, if known. Snakes are sexed by probing.
Cost
If the animal is available for purchase, what the cost is.
ACR #
If the snake has been registered in the American Cornsnake Registry, the registered number of the snake. This can be useful for tracking the family tree of Corn Snakes.
iHerp #
All of my stock are registered with iHerp. This field has the iHerp number of the specimen, which can be used to view tracking information, such as feeding and shed records.
NAHERP #
Some wild caught breeding stock has been documented in the NAHERP database. The NAHERP ID number for the specimen is disclosed in this field. Please note that I never ever sell a wild collected animal, so you will only see this field used in a small percentage of my breeding stock.
Genotype Information
Unless you are going to breed an animal, the genotype of an animal does not matter. What matters for pets is the Phenotype, described in the Morph/Phase field.
The genotype of an animal is a genetic description of an animal, including traits that are not visually expressed.
Genotype on this site is used primarily to described the known status of simple Mendel genes in an animal and is of value to those wishing to purchase an animal for breeding projects.
Even with homozygous gene pairs, the information in the genotype may differ from the information on the morph/phase field. For example, an Albino with nice bright red blotches on a bright orange background with no or very litte white has the trade name of "Sunglow". The Mendelian gene involved however is the amel gene, and it may have an identical genotype to a Candy Cane or Reverse Okeetee or Creamscicle or standard Amel. A corn snake that expresses both Amel and Charcoal would be described as a "Blizzard" in the Morph/Phase field, as that is the trade name. However in the Homozygous field it will list Amel and Charcoal.
The following genotype fields are used:
Homozygous
The animal has two identical genes in the specified locus (gene pair). Usually only morph traits are listed as homozygous. There is not much point in identifying an animal as homozygous wild type at a specified locus.
Heterozygous
The animal is known to carry the gene for the trait but is not homozygous for the trait at the locus of interest, it only has one copy of the gene.
Either the animal has a parent that is homozygous for the trait or the animal has been proven heterozygous by breeding.
In a few cases, there are visual indications that an animal is heterozygous for a trait. This can happen when the gene is codom with the Wild-type gene or is codom with another recessive gene.
Special Note
Normally, you can count the number of traits listed in the Heterozygous field to determine if it is a single het, double het, triple het, etc.
This is not always the case however, as some traits use the same allele. For example, in Corn Snakes, Ultra and Amel are allelic. A Corn Snake that has both Ultra and Amel listed in the heterozygous field is not a double het, as in that case both genes occupy the same single heterozygous gene pair.
66% Heterozygous
There is a 66% (actually 2 out 3) chance that the animal is heterozygous for the trait. This is the result of a known heterozygous paired with a known heterozygous.
The way simple Mendelian genetics works, a particular locus has one gene from the father and one one gene from the mother. If "A" is the dominant gene and "a" is the recessive gene, a heterozygous animal will be "Aa" at the gene pair.
Taking one gene from each parent, there are four equally possible outcomes:
- AA - The baby inherited the A gene from father and A gene from mother. Dominant phenotype.
- Aa - The baby inherited the A gene from father and a gene from mother. Dominant phenotype.
- Aa - The baby inherited the a gene from father and A gene from mother. Dominant phenotype.
- aa - The baby inherited the a gene from father and a gene from mother. Recessive phenotype.
Young with the "aa" pair will express the simple recessive trait and can be visually identified. Those that do not express the simple recessive trait must be one of the other three equally likely results. Since two of the other three equally likely results result in a heterozygous animal and one of the other three equally likely results does not, there is a 2 out of 3 (or 66% rounded down) chance that the normal looking young are heterozygous (het) for the trait.
50% Heterozygous
There is a 50% (1 out of 2) chance that the animal is heterozygous for the trait. This is the result of a known heterozygous paired with an animal that is not known to carry the trait.
The young can not inherit the gene for the trait from a parent that does not carry the gene, and it has a 1 in 2 chance of inheriting the gene from a parent that is heterozygous for the trait. Thus there is a 50% chance of any individual young from the pairing carries the trait.
PossHet
PossHet indicates that the animal has an ancestor that is known to carry the trait but it is unknown whether either of the animals parents actually carried the trait.
For example, if the father is 66% het for Anery and the mother is not het for Anery, the animal will be noted as PossHet Anery. The PossHet status may be updated in the future if the parent that potentially carries the trait is tested for the trait.
NullHet(tested)
The animal has been tested for a specific trait and found not to carry the trait. There are two methods for testing.
- If the animal has been bred to a mate that is homozygous for the trait and has produced at least 10 young from that pairing, none of which express the homozygous form of the trait, then the animal has been demonstrated not to carry the trait. The odds of a heterozygous X homozygous pairing producing no homozygous offspring out of 10 young are 1 in 1024.
- If the animal has been bred to a mate that is known to be heterozygous for the trait and has produced at least 24 young from that pairing, none of which express the homozygous form of the trait, then the animal has been demonstrated not to carry the trait. The odds of a heterozygous X heterozygous pairing producing no homozygous offspring out of 24 young are approximately 1 in 1000.
Of course, if any offspring from a pairing express the homozygous form of a simple recessive trait then it has been proven that both parents carry the gene for the trait.
NullHet(genetic)
An animal is listed as NullHet(genetic) if both parents are known not to carry the trait. Testing is not needed in those cases. An animal can not inherit a simple Mendelian trait for which neither of the parents carry the trait.
More Information
For more information on Mendelian genetics, see the Encyclopædia Britannica article on heredity.
Breeding Information
Clutches Produced
If the animal has successfully bred for me, this field will have the clutch designations for young it has produced.
This page and its contents except for portions otherwise noted are ©2008 Michael A. Peters.