Identify Hets in Ball Pythons - Lavender Albino, Ultramel, and more!

Today we have some exciting news regarding reptiles and research being done around how genes are inherited. How do you identify het pied in a ball python? Learn one guaranteed way in the video. Want to know if your 66% het ultramel is really ultramel? Completely accurate identification is on its way. This type of research has the ability to completely change the way we work with animals in captivity. Not only ball pythons but also corn snakes, sand boas, and many other popular pet reptiles will have the core of the industry change when people are able to identify het animals with no more guessing. The next time you're browsing MorphMarket or another classified ads site take a moment of your time to consider what it would mean to have all the "66% het clown" listings disappear and instead be replaced with known genes. Imagine being able to identify the source of traits that have snuck into breeder collections with the wrong label. This is real science being done using a very old technology, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), combined with our understanding of inheritable traits (Mendelian inheritance). You may remember PCR being mentioned in a previous video here at the Reptile Information Review regarding nidovirus - it's the same technology used since 1985. This is real science. There are no fake crackpot theories about Vitamin D or cut and pasted Wikipedia articles here. Special note: The snakes featured in the video are fresh from the egg and not even a week old.