Is 66% het albino a good description

[wokka]

From time to time I notice animals advertised as 66% het albino ........
To me that means that the animals have a 66% possibility of being Het for Albino which in turn means that if mated there is a 50% chance of passing on Albino genetics. Some newbies have told me it means that the animal carries a 66% chance of passing on Albino genetics. By replacing the word Possible with 66% in the description some uninformed buyers think that a 66% Het has more Albino genetics than a het for Albino. A clearer desciption may be Possible het rather than 66% het as I am sure no seller would like to mislead any uninformed purchasers..

 

[killimike]

I think adding 'possible' might not be a terrible idea. You see some ads that do have it.

But if the reason is to avoid newbie confusion, I'm not sure it would help. I'm stuffed if I know why, but simple recessive monogenic traits like albinism are the simplest mode of inheritance to understand, but there are still endless misunderstandings about how it works. So your example with someone who seems to have thought that 66% hets were more likely to make albinos than actual albinos (If I have understood you correctly?), that sounds like par for the course no matter what.

If someone purchases a snake and doesn't inform themselves enough to be misled by it being called a '66% het'.....

 

[wokka]

The fact is that they are not 66% het. they have a 66% possibility of being het.

 

[D3pro]

100% het for recessive gene: 100% chance of passing on gene.
66% het for recessive gene: 66% chance . . .
50% het for recessice gene: 50% chance . . .

All the above state the likeliness that the recessive gene will pass on. If you were to just say "possible" then that is misleading. Because there is a big difference between 66% and 25% chance of the recessive gene to be passed on. The % on a recessive gene might effect sale of the animal.

Someone might buy a 100% het male and three 66% het females (lets say for a granite projects). The person puts the male over each female, with the strong chance one of the females is a het and therefore producing visuals.

I hope this makes sense. If the buyer wants to get into the morph side of the hobby, then it's their responsibility to read up on the genetics side of things before they invest their money.

 

[killimike]

The fact is that they are not 66% het. they have a 66% possibility of being het.

The fact is that there is no such thing as being '66% albino', so that's not the way to interpret the description. Everything requires interpretation. Even what it means to be 'het' for albino. A newbie might think that means it's 'half' albino, so should be lighter or something. Who knows?

Just saying '66% het' is not misleading.

EDIT: Agree with D3

 

[grimbeny]

I think people should be 100% explicit and sell the animals with the phrase. "There is a 66 percent chance that this animal contains a gene at a locus such that if any individual carried two copies of said gene at said locus they would be albino" Even then I think some people could become confused.

 

[Snake_Whisperer]

Yeh, wouldn't say it's misleading either. Mind you, whenever I hear the term, I cannot recall hearing it as anything other than 66% poss. het.

 

[Em1986]

I actually purchased myself a pair of 66% (possible) hets not long ago, i understand what the term means but at the price they were i was happy to take the chance. I don't mind if they don't produce albinos but am happy there is a chance that they may in the future.

On that subject what would happen if i bred a 100% het over a 66%?

 

[snakeynewbie]

Em that would depend if it was actually het or not, ultimately a 66% het still either is or isn't het so if it is het then you get albinos amongst the offspring, if it isn't het you will only get normals and some more hets(which you can't tell apart from the non hets anyway)

 

[grimbeny]

66% of the time you would get 25% albino, 50% het, 25% normal and 33% of the time you would get 50% het and 50% normal.

And in your case Em with 2 66% hets, there is a 66% probabbility that all your offspring will look normal.

 

[snakebag]

66% of the time you would get 25% albino, 50% het, 25% normal and 33% of the time you would get 50% het and 50% normal.

lol

 

[snakeynewbie]

Wow grimbeny, that was much more intelligent than the way I answered that question, someone tell me why I went to uni :lol:

 

[pythrulz]

When I see those adds for 66% possible hets I always feel sorry for those who buy them and hoping to breed one day breeding a pair of 2 100% hets would result in roughly 1/4 albinos about the same results in 100% as well as 66$ but you cant tell between the hets or possible so much better to breed a albino and a 100%het which would result in albinos with the rest 100% for albinoism

 

[Ramsayi]

I think people should be 100% explicit and sell the animals with the phrase. "There is a 66 percent chance that this animal contains a gene at a locus such that if any individual carried two copies of said gene at said locus they would be albino" Even then I think some people could become confused.

Anyone in the market for hets would most likely be because they had intentions of hopefully breeding them.If they don't understand the percentage probabilities then what hope would they have understanding the word "locus" or for that matter "gene" :lol:

 

[wokka]

100% het for recessive gene: 100% chance of passing on gene.
66% het for recessive gene: 66% chance . . .
50% het for recessice gene: 50% chance . . .

All the above state the likeliness that the recessive gene will pass on. If you were to just say "possible" then that is misleading. Because there is a big difference between 66% and 25% chance of the recessive gene to be passed on. The % on a recessive gene might effect sale of the animal.

Someone might buy a 100% het male and three 66% het females (lets say for a granite projects). The person puts the male over each female, with the strong chance one of the females is a het and therefore producing visuals.

I hope this makes sense. If the buyer wants to get into the morph side of the hobby, then it's their responsibility to read up on the genetics side of things before they invest their money.

Can a het have a 66% chance of passing on a recessive gene? I thought they either have a 50% chance of passing on a recessive gene as with a het, or a 100% chance of passing on a recessive gene as with an Albino.

 

[grimbeny]

Can a het have a 66% chance of passing on a recessive gene? I thought they either have a 50% chance of passing on a recessive gene as with a het, or a 100% chance of passing on a recessive gene as with an Albino.

I think Depro is reffering to the chance that a normal looking animal has had a recessive gene passed onto it.

 

[FusionMorelia]

unless its 100%het i would think more "proof" of het is needed, anyone can sell a darwin say its 66% het but without full clutch pics/parent pics to prove het possibility how the hell would u know for sure????

p.s 66%het is a fairly acurate description of the likely odds of the het gene IMO.

Nato

 

[grimbeny]

unless its 100%het i would think more "proof" of het is needed, anyone can sell a darwin say its 66% het but without full clutch pics/parent pics to prove het possibility how the hell would u know for sure????

Cant the same be true for 100% hets?

 

[maddog-1979]

i'm a big fat noob here, but after a quick reading of this i undertand it as

a 66% het, just means there is a 66% chance it carries the recessive gene. so if for example you breed a 66%het with a pure albino, and you get 50% albino offspring, then it is proven your 66% actually carries the gene so it is really a 100%

if you get no albinos from the pairing, then your 66% het does not have the gene, so it is fact a big fat 0% het. some of the offspring would be het????

am i close or way off the mark?

 

[Em1986]

Thanks guys