Quote Originally Posted by twgrosmick View Post
So basically all the snakes will carry the gene for melanism while only half with carry it for pied.
Not really.

"Second (pairing) is a female melanistic eastern that I paired with a het pied"

All offspring would be "100% het melanistic". But, even if the pied was definitely a het(100% het), all babies would have only a 50% chance of also being het pied. They could ALL be het, or none. It's just that the odds would be 50%. So, babies from this pair would be normal looking, but they would all be "100% het melanistic, 50% het pied". The 50% and 100% doesn't refer to how many of them are het. It only indicates the chances than any one of them is het for melanistic and pied, respectively.

Since you know that one parent is melanistic, the odds of the babies being het for that trait is 100%. But even IF the other parent is a confirmed het, any one of the babies would still only have a 50% chance of being het for pied. They all could be, just one or two, half, or none of them. It's not that half would be het for pied. It's that they would have a 50% chance of being het.

It was my understanding that the trait has been proven to be genetic, and recessive if it's from the same line as Scott's.