New to Bearded Dragon breeding, and I have a few questions :D

[Zypted]

Hello all thanks for stopping in, I am currently looking to get into some bearded dragon breeding. I have grown up with reptiles and bearded's but never really looked into the genetics and traits side of things. As of now I have a 2 y/o Male and a 1 y/o female, I have the traits for the female and some of the information on the male when it comes to the parents, but I don't really understand what the whole Het. Trans, Het Hypo, Hybrid, is referring to when it comes to actual visuals on the dragons. This bringing me to ask, what do the traits for my bearded's necessarily mean and would this male and female (when they're both old and big enough of course) be a safe/acceptable breeding pair? I just didn't want to jump into breeding them right away without learning whether or not they're a safe pair, and I thought a bearded dragon website/forum would be the best place for me to go for some help. )

I will upload pictures of both the Male and Female bearded's along with the trait's/parent's genetics that I know of, and if there's anything more you guys think I should know when it comes to breeding feel free to comment any beginners advice

[<-Female: Amaru->]
[<-Male: Mushu->]

Female's Parents:
-Red Het Hypo/Trans
-Red Barbata Hybrid Het Hypo/Trans

Female's Traits:
-66 Het Translucent, 66 Het Hypo, Red, Tiger

Male's Parents
- Citrus Red
- Citrus Blue Bar

Male's Traits:
This is where I am confused, I dunno.

 

[xp29]

First het is short for heterozygous. It means that a gene is carried but not displayed. The gene is recessive and offspring have to receive a copy from both parents for the trait associated with that gene to be displayed visually. Hypo for instance is recessive so if one parent is hypo or het hypo but the other parent isn't NONE of the offspring will be visually hypo. But there is a percentage of them that will carry the hypo gene making them het hypo. The only way to determine hets is through breeding. If you suspect a het, you would breed with a dragon that is visual for that trait or has been "proven" through breeding itself. If you get even 1 baby that is visual, you have "proven" your dragon to be het for that trait. It's best to breed het to het, there is less chance of poor genetics. You can breed het to visual and be ok to a large degree. But some visual to visual such as translucents can cause some pretty nasty birth defects or genetically weak animals and should be avoided.
Some genes are dominant and offspring only need a copy from one parent for it to be displayed. Dunner, leatherback, or gentic stripe for instance are all dominant. When you breed those animals the results are clear cut. The offspring either carry it (visual) or don't (not displayed) there is no need to try to "prove" those genes out.
Some of the recessive traits are: hypo, translucents, zero, witblits, and wero.
Color is a whole different story. Color is like melting crayons then stirring them together. You can predict to a small degree what the blending will look like but it can vary wildly.
Breeding hets has another great advantage, in example my boy Sinatra is a hypo, het trans, het zero, blue bar dunner. He is super orange and blue. My new girl Zsa Zsa is a hypo, trans, het zero, tangerine, citrus, tiger. She is insanely orange. Because they are both het zero they could produce zeros which are completely white. Dunner is dominant and they both carry a copy of all the other traits so they can reproduce any combination of ALL those traits.
Looking at your dragons I don't see anything that would make breeding them an issue, but without knowing their exact gentics it's impossible to predict what traits they would produce.

 

[Zypted]

First het is short for heterozygous. It means that a gene is carried but not displayed. The gene is recessive and offspring have to receive a copy from both parents for the trait associated with that gene to be displayed visually. Hypo for instance is recessive so if one parent is hypo or het hypo but the other parent isn't NONE of the offspring will be visually hypo. But there is a percentage of them that will carry the hypo gene making them het hypo. The only way to determine hets is through breeding. If you suspect a het, you would breed with a dragon that is visual for that trait or has been "proven" through breeding itself. If you get even 1 baby that is visual, you have "proven" your dragon to be het for that trait. It's best to breed het to het, there is less chance of poor genetics. You can breed het to visual and be ok to a large degree. But some visual to visual such as translucents can cause some pretty nasty birth defects or genetically weak animals and should be avoided.
Some genes are dominant and offspring only need a copy from one parent for it to be displayed. Dunner, leatherback, or gentic stripe for instance are all dominant. When you breed those animals the results are clear cut. The offspring either carry it (visual) or don't (not displayed) there is no need to try to "prove" those genes out.
Some of the recessive traits are: hypo, translucents, zero, witblits, and wero.
Color is a whole different story. Color is like melting crayons then stirring them together. You can predict to a small degree what the blending will look like but it can vary wildly.
Breeding hets has another great advantage, in example my boy Sinatra is a hypo, het trans, het zero, blue bar dunner. He is super orange and blue. My new girl Zsa Zsa is a hypo, trans, het zero, tangerine, citrus, tiger. She is insanely orange. Because they are both het zero they could produce zeros which are completely white. Dunner is dominant and they both carry a copy of all the other traits so they can reproduce any combination of ALL those traits.
Looking at your dragons I don't see anything that would make breeding them an issue, but without knowing their exact gentics it's impossible to predict what traits they would produce.

Hey man! Thank you so much for the detailed and informative reply, much appreciated!! This helped a lot with my understanding of everything! I may look to breed them in the future once my female is the right size, and in the meantime try to figure out my males traits. But thank you again for the reply!

 

[xp29]

Hey man! Thank you so much for the detailed and informative reply, much appreciated!! This helped a lot with my understanding of everything! I may look to breed them in the future once my female is the right size, and in the meantime try to figure out my males traits. But thank you again for the reply!

Your very welcome