I have a couple of genetics questions regarding eastern garter snakes. Some of you may recall that I once had a pair of melanistic T.s.sirtalis babies that were CBB and were supposed to be het for flame. Well, I had to get rid of them a while back but through a round about way I did end up with 1.2 babies from this pair about a month ago. The female had given birth to 8 babies and all were melanistic. In talking with someone about them I was told that the melanistic gene is a dominant gene and that even if the parents are het for flame that any babies born would be melanistic. I have since lost the male so now I have two healthy looking females. I don't know if the guy I got them from has any males left or not so I don't know if I can replace him. Anyway, here are my questions.

1. What is the classification (if that is the correct term) of the melanistic gene in T.s.sirtalis (dominant, recessive, other)?

2. What is the classification of the flame gene in T.s.sirtalis?

3. Was the info I received correct about the melanistic gene and all babies being melanistic even if the parents carry the flame gene?

If the info above is correct it would seem to me that I could use any old T.s.sirtalis male and produce clutches that may be mixed normals and melanistic. My problem with that is I really have no outlet for normal babies. According to Wisconsin laws I can sell native reptiles that are atypically colored and melanistic would fall into that category but I can not sell normals. I feel that it may not be responsible for me to release the normal babies. I don't know if I could give them away or not and I don't want to be put in a situation where I have to decide what to do with a bunch of garter snake babies.

Making a few assumptions here, 1 being that melanism is a dominant gene, 2 that flame is a recessive gene, 3 the parents of my babies were het for flame, 4 my babies are possible het for flame. I have come to the conclusion that it would make more sense for me to aquire a male flame to replace my deceased male rather than replace him with another melanistic or melanistic het for flame. This would theoretically give me a better chance to produce flames. My reasoning is this.

If my babies are het for flame and I bred them to a flame male I should get 50/50 melanistic/flame. If I bred them to a melanistic they would all be melanistic if I bred them to a normal I would get 75/25 melanistic/normal. If I bred them to a melanistic het for flame I would get 75/25 melanistic/flame. If I bred them to a normal het for flame I would get 25/50/25 normal het for flame/melanistic/flame

Of course, with my limited understanding of genetics I might be further ahead to let tommy boy hit me over the head with a tack hammer than to try to explain all this.

Assuming that my previous assumptions and conclusions are correct is there anything special I should be looking for in a flame. I have seen some pretty intense reds on some of them but the prices were pretty intense also. I know why and I understand it but my main question is would any old flame work. Obviously I will look for the best I can afford but price is a bit of an issue. I should mention that I got the babies for $20.00 each and I traded the guy $60.00 worth of rats and mice that I had produced so I got them real cheap. I suppose I could look at it like I got the females so cheap I can afford to spend a bit more on the male and If I had the money it wouldn't be an issue but right now I don't.

I know this isn't the most fluid of posts and I have made a lot of assumptions that may or may not turn out to be true but I figured that if I could get help anywhere it would be here.

Thanks

Steve