Rogers Reptiles

Hello all,

Some of you may have been following my striped jungle breeding programme over the years and have been wondering how I have bred my striped patterned jungles.

Hopefully you can all breed better stripes if you follow my methods.

At first I bred a Tiger striped jungle female to a non striped or normal jungle male, hoping to get half a clutch of offspring patterned like the striped parent female, but this did not happen.

Only about 25% or 1/4 of the clutch had some type of striping,

But none had the true tiger striped pattern like the mother .

At this stage no one thought it was possible to have normal patterned jungles that were het for some type of striping.

Up to this point most people were of the opinion that genetic stripes in Carpet pythons were some type of Co Dom type inheritance .

Anyway to cut a long story short.

I bred a male offspring with a mixed up pattern semi stripe pattern

back to his mother with tiger stripes to see if the son was a het for tiger stripes.

AND bingo out popped 4 tiger striped offspring from a clutch of 16 eggs,

The results seemed conclusive to me.

That clutch produced 1/4 true tigers ,just like the mother,

1/2 the clutch was semi striped, visible hets ,like the father.

then the last 1/4 were normal looking jungle pattern invisable hets for striping.

Anyway I researched genetics the best I could and by the way my breeding programme was producing these stripes in predictable clutch ratios ?,

the mode of inheritance did not match up to known genetic modes of inheritance.

In the long run I came to the conclusion that stripes act in a recessive "like" mode of inheritance but different to how other genetics stripes are produced in other python species and then I went about proving my recessive like genetics stripes theory.

In my eyes I have proven it many times now.

Below is how I have seen these genetics express themselves in my breeding programme.

By inbreeding and line breeding.

I do believe this is a true genetic mode of inheritance , if its accepted or not is out of my hands.

But if you want to breed better and neater stripes ?,

Try breeding the offspring back to the best striped patterned parent and watch how 1/4 of their clutch turn out to be very nice striped hatchlings like the striped parent or better.

In the long run you will get better results by breeding as i have done,

Good luck with your Striped breeding programmes.

My Genetic mode of inheritance theory is written below.

COMPLEX STRIPED GENETICS
The Key to unlocking striped pattern traits .
The study of the heredity patterns in Jungle Carpet Pythons.
By Roger John Lester

Complex Striped genetics mode of inheritance theory

Now with striped carpet python genetics,
These are by far the most complicated pattern genes in all python species.

In complex genetics there are non visual het cariers that carry a single allele for some type of striped pattern.

A single allele inherited from each parent results in some type of striping in predictable clutch ratios.

There also appears to be intermeadiate transition stages of the pattern with visable markers showing the next inheritable phase of the pattern.
Its appears that for any striping to be visable on a individual python ? 2 alleles are needed to be inherited.
But sometimes not full versions of the striping pattern are expressed these are called visible markers.

This variation in patterns come from sequences of nucleotides on a DNA molecule that constitutes the form of a gene at a specific spot or chromosome.
The allele appears to pass on the body pattern in carpets in a mixed up or jumbled up pattern code sequence, ie
thus we see the complex pattern variations in carpet pythons.

This is different to how other striped pattern genetics are inherited in other species of pythons,
ie Co dom pattern traits or simple recessive pattern traits.
Inbreeding forces the mixed up pattern code to link together to produce better and better versions of the pattern within each generation of line breeding or inbreeding acting in a predictable mode of inheritance.

Complex Striped genetics mode of inheritance is a bit like a combination of recessive and co dom,

the traits starts off as simple recessive to get the trait expressed or visual.
Then acts similiar to co dom as you have visual markers indicating each stage of the inheritance process.
In Complex striped genetics not full copies of the heritable striped trait are passed on or expressed,
you need to inbreed to bring out the trait more and more until you get to the final end pattern form.

Genetic differences with inherited striping patterns in pythons

When the nucleotides are uniform the striping trait is passed on and expressed in a predictable manner.
IE Co Dom Tiger Reticulated Pythons or simple recessive as in the genetic stripe Ball Pythons.

In Carpet Pythons the striped patterns are not produced in this manner,
ie Striped carpet python bred to non striped carpet python does not produce same genetic results as in Co Dom tiger retics or in simple recessive striped balls ??
So there is clearly a difference that should be acknowledged.
Agreed ?
But with Complex striped genetics , to get to the final form of the trait " ie perfect stripes "can take usually more generations of inbreeding , more than the Co Dom type mode of inheritance,

We need to judge only striping patterns traits , better stripes cannot be produced by breeding Co Dom fashion with carpet pythons.

The new vision on how to produce better and more perfect striped patterns

A Carpet python can show striping variation depending on the sequences of nucleotides inherited.
Inbreeding or line breeding will produce better stripes by concentrating the pattern into neater and more symmetrical lateral and dorsel striping along the body.

So that if a python carries alleles for head to mid body striping then they are striped in that area of the body but still could be invisable hets for striping in the rest of the body that are not showing stripes.
The offspring from a Striped jungle Carpet needs to be bred back to the parent with the striped trait and its only then you get the better versions of the striped pattern coming out, but only in 1/4 of the clutch.

A very different genetic mode of inheritance in play in carpet python when compared to other genetic striped traits.
You need to inbreed or line breed to get the full pattern trait to show itself.

The whole point in this artical was to point out how better striped patterns can be produced by inbreeding.

Pattern assimilations

Then the other real interesting thing is all the sequences of nucleotides are excepted by each other to form?

The semi stripe to single stripe to tri stripe to tiger stripe to super tiger patterns.

These are not seperate pattern mutations but only intermeadiate pattern stages leading to the final end pattern form. ie super tiger.

One pattern leads to another then to another with more inbreeding.
This creates various combinations of the above patterns in clutch ratios.

With Complex Striped traits there are no dramatic shifts in looks only a continuation of the striped pattern trait expressed already with visable markers indicating the next stage in the pattern.