Q: Can I tell the genotype of my snake just by looking at it?
A: Technically, no. For the most part it is impossible to tell if a snake is heterozygous for any given trait without doing breeding trials.

Q: What morphs are co-dominant?
A: The (D^D) diffusion gene is (variably) codominant to (D⁺) it's wild-type counterpart. The (a^a) amel and (a^u) ultra genes are codominant to each other, and both are recessive to (A⁺) their wild-type counterpart.

Q: What does 50% het or 66% het mean?
A: Both percentages reflect the statistical probabilty that each egg, not the clutch as a whole, will be some genotype xyz. If you breed two snakes that are both normals het amel together, the resulting statistical probabilty will be as follows: 1/4 amels, 1/4 normal, 1/2 normal het amel. Disregard the amels as they are showing the trait and cannot be het for it, and you are left with all normals, some het for amel and some not. Theoretically 1/2 out of 3/4 of the normals will be het for amel. 0.5 / 0.75 = 0.66667%.
The same holds true regarding 50% het. A normal x normal het amel will give all normal offspring, 50% being het for amelanism.

Q: What is an ultramel?
A: An ultramel has one amel gene, and one ultra gene. Since the genes both occur at the 'amel locus' and are co-dominant to each other, the resulting animal is one that looks something between an amel, and a hypo. Since this is a new morph, expect a lot of variation, especially due to the co-dominance. Ultramels can be made by crossing an ultra x amel = 100% ultramels, or by crossing ultramel x ultramel, ultramel x amel, or ultramel x ultra.

I was wondering because of the (codominant?) genetics of the ultramel gene what would the offspring carry from a goldust motley(ultramel caramel motley) x goldust motley be? I know the babies would all be caramel motley's but how would the ultramel part play out? Would it be:
1/4 amel caramel motley
1/4 (homo ultra) caramel motley
1/2 ultramel caramel motley
or would the ultramel play out in some other way?

tazzy....one for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh and welcome to the forum!

http://www.supersnakes.com/gwiz.htm

have a play about with this

aw.....so you lot all cheat eh!!!! you pop to this page everytime you need to know anything do you??? pmsl

Thats it,on the head.When dealing with an Ultra-mel,think
on it as being het for ultra and amel.

25% Butter motley (both parents hand over the amel and caramel, but no ultra)
50% Golddust Motley (One parent hands over amel, one hands over ultra, both hand over caramel)
25% Ultra Caramel ("ultra-amber" ?) Motley (Both parents hand over ultra and caramel, but no amel).