These are 100% het hypo, meaning you have a 100% chance of these being het hypos instead of normals. They are not visually different from a normal looking redfoot. Sometimes its impossible to visually tell the difference between a het and normal redfoot. But sometimes their colors are so much brighter its recognizable, and these in particular have some orange in them, making them look a little different than your average redfoot.
“100% het hypo” refers to the genetic makeup of a red-footed tortoise. “Het” is short for heterozygous, which means that the tortoise carries a single copy of a particular gene mutation, but not two copies. In this case, the gene in question is associated with the hypo (short for hypomelanistic) trait, which is a reduction in the production of melanin, the pigment responsible for coloration in animals.
When a red-footed tortoise is said to be “100% het hypo,” it means that it has inherited one copy of the hypo gene from each of its parents. The “100%” indicates that the tortoise is homozygous (meaning it carries two copies) for the gene in question, making it more likely to produce offspring with the hypo trait when bred with another tortoise that also carries the gene.
It’s worth noting that while the hypo trait is visually striking, it does not have any impact on the health or well-being of the tortoise.
Below is the break down of hets and hypos to help you better understand.
Hypo x Normal = all 100% Hets
Hypo x Het = 1/2 Hypos 1/2 100% Hets
Het x Normal = 1/2 normals 1/2 100% Hets (this gets you all 50% Hets because visually you cant distinguish normals from Hets so you have to sell them all as 50% Hets. However, they are either 100% Het or Normal, you just don’t know which is which)
Het x Het = 1/4 Hypos 1/4 normals 2/4 100% Hets (in this case, 3/4 are NOT Hypos. Out of those 3, 2/3 are 100% Het and 1/3 are Normals, so this yields all 66% Hets because again, you don’t know which normal looking animals is a Het and what normal looking animal is a Normal.
If you bought babies from Het x Het, they are 66% Hets. 2/3 of yours are 100% Het and 1/3 are expensive normals.
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