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Old 09-25-2020, 09:18 AM   #2
scmartin27
Pied is a weird one. The breeding was a Pied x Pied, therefore all snakes are genetically Pied.
But some Snakes that are genetically Pied don't show it visually, and that has to do with the color migration while in development.
When corns are developing in the egg, the color and pattern develop from the spine downward. Diffused slows/stops the progression of the pattern shortly after the first few scales down from the spine (in lower expression diffused, it stops progression farther down). Pied stops progression of the Color a few scales down from the spine (same is true here: lower expression pieds stop progression farther down, high expression pieds stop progression farther up closer to the spine). When you have a low expression bloodred whose pattern isn't stopped high enough, it can cause the pied's expression to be lower as well.
This can also be affected by whether the Masque gene is present (or if it's homozygous vs heterozygous), as the Masque gene assists diffused in the slowing of progression.
I saw the post you're talking about (Looks like NOLA Reptiles was the producer), and it looks like many snakes in that clutch didn't have the masque gene, or at least it was not homozygous. So that could be one reason that the progression wasn't slowed/stopped soon enough for the pied to be visual.
Hope that helped! I know it's confusing!