Well, there is no such thing as a true "leucistic" dragon. I would recommend searching leucistic to see the definition. Then you can check out my website to see an example of a "marketed leucistic", Luey and Blanco. You can search on here and find plenty of discussions comparing and contrasting this subject. Dont get caught up in it too much though. Check out Dachui's website as they have a lot of good information on the subject as well.
So the quad het is - hypo - trans - am smoothie & am leather? And Italian leather is co-dominant gene. So I'm still trying to understand how the co-dominant gene works. Does that mean you only need one co-dominant parent to produce more? I bought a leatherback sibling from a breeder recently and was told that when paired with an italian leatherback would produce more leathers and siblings. I am familiar with genetics from Rabbits and working pundit squares but have never heard of a co-dominant gene. I'm just trying to make sure I understand correctly so I can plan next years pairings accordingly.
I have some info from Josh @ Phantom that really helped me to understand everything. While I now know that I got ripped off by an un-named breeder at least I have the knowledge to move forward now. So here is the quote from the email on the leatherback lines.
"Basically, all the italian and american leathers are a visual het for silkback. You get the exact same ratios with them as you would with het trans and het hypos.
There are 3 types of leatherbacks:
1).Italian(allessandros line) codominant
2).american(AC reptiles line) codominant aka: american smoothie
3).recessive(my skeletor line)
Recessive leatherbacks only have a smooth torso. The rest of their body is spiney. When the recessive and codominant lines are combined, the end result is a leather with a super smooth(almost papery thin) torso, and the rest of the body is regular leatherback scales.
American smoothie and italian leatherback causes way too much confusion. Thats why I have been calling american smoothie american leatherback. They both do the same thing, and are compatible with each other."
I was a bit confused because people kept referring to a "visual het" well that just means that they are a leatherback. A leatherback is a visual form of the silkback gene. Silkback and normal scales are both codominant genes. Which means that if you cross them they both show up. White flower and Red Flower = Pink Flower! Hazaaa I got it!
Good stuff. Be careful though. The silkback gene is NOT co-dominant. It is the "super" form or dominant form of the co-dominant gene(leatherback). If you breed a silkie (and for your dragons sake I hope the silkie is a male!) to a normal you will get leatherbacks.
Okay now it's back to me being confused. I think I got it though... what makes it codominant or "visual het" is that you only need one to get 50% leather? And the dominant or "super" form yields 100% leather offspring?
And no worries I think silkbacks look like burn victims and won't be producing any myself. And I do hope the poor female babies that were born this way are not bred. So if you bred a silk to a CD-leather you would get 50/50?
You got it Greathouse! And as far as silkies go, they are aliens in my opinion and shouldnt be bred. There is a problem when a reptile has to have lotion applied to it. I will NEVER produce one.