Information
Fell free to use the links to the left to navigate quickly though the site and use the social media icons below to connect with us.
The Punnett square is nothing more than a tool to help predict the phenotype of offspring from two adults with known genotypes. So what is that in layman’s terms, you ask? To really get a grasp of recessive genetics, one must first have a general idea of how the Punnett square works. Since most people unfamiliar with reptile color morphs and may not have thought about the Punnett square since high biology class that is if you took biology, so here is a quick crash course in Punnett Squares!
Just remember, all of the information within this section, is based on statistics. Prime example, if you flip a coin 10 times, the chances of landing on heads 5 times is possible, but you could also land up getting heads 7 times... so just remember, the numbers are just theoretical.
Below is a link to explain how Punnett Squares are built and how they work. Within this example, we will be looking at setting a Punnett Square for a single recessive type animal. This is the basic structure that all Punnett Squares work on.
Building a Punnett Square
Below is a selection of breaking down a single recessive trait. Just select one of the options below to see various outcomes within a recessive trait. In the examples, we have used the Candy gene as the recessive example, but this information can be used with any single recessive gene
Making Heterozygous (hets) Candy babies (Candy x Normal)
Het Candy x Het Candy
Het Candy x Normal
Het Candy x Visual Candy
Visual Candy x Visual Candy
Now, this is where Punnett Squares become tricky, if you cast back to the Single Recessive Trait, you will see that when this worked out this gave us a result for 4 offspring's. Now that we are looking at two recessive traits, this means it will work out results for 16 offspring's (best way to explain why its 16 offspring and not 8. The simplest reason is 4 multiplied by 4 is 16)
In the example below we are looking at using the Candy gene and the Piebald (Pied) gene.
Making the double hets for Candy Pied
Double het for Candy Pied x Double het for Candy Pied
Double het for Candy Pied x Normal
Double het for Candy Pied x Het Candy
Double het for Candy Pied x Candy
Double het for Candy Pied x Candy Pied
Candy Pied x het Candy
Candy Pied x Candy
Candy Pied x Candy het Pied
Candy het Pied x Pied het Candy
Incomplete Dominant Traits, otherwise commonly referred to as co-dom within the hobby. incomplete dominant traits work like a single recessive trait, however, the advantage is that the "het" version will be able to visually tell this apart from the normal ball python.
Pastel x Normal
Pastel x Pastel
Super Pastel x Normal
Super Pastel x Pastel
Super Pastel x Super Pastel
This is one of the more interesting topics within the reptile industry. This is when a combination of traits that generally should not interact within the first breeding, but they do. The prime example within a recessive gene within ball pythons, we look at the Albino trait and the Candy trait. When bred together, we would expect it to start working like a double recessive gene, however, when pairing Candy and Albino together, we get a Candino. This Candino is a (for a lack of a better word) a "visual double recessive".
For more information about this, you can read an article I wrote for Justin Kobylka's Ball Street Journal
Fell free to use the links to the left to navigate quickly though the site and use the social media icons below to connect with us.