Hognose Snake morph

Recessive

Swiss Chocolate

Hognose Snake (Heterodon nasicus)

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What Swiss Chocolate looks like

A recessive Western hognose trait associated with dark coloration from hatching and a darker head. Yellow tones and an irregular background can distinguish it from Sable, although appearance varies. Two copies produce the visual trait; one copy is a nonvisual carrier.

How to identify it: Dark hatchlings, a darker head and retained body markings. Compare with documented lineage; appearance alone does not identify carriers or reliably distinguish similar dark traits.

How Swiss Chocolate is inherited

Swiss Chocolate follows a recessive inheritance pattern, carried on the Swiss Chocolate allele (locus SWCH).

What does het swiss chocolate mean?

Because Swiss Chocolate is recessive, an animal needs two copies of the allele to show the trait visually. An animal with a single copy is called het swiss chocolate (heterozygous). A het animal looks normal but carries the gene, so pairing two het swiss chocolate animals produces, on average, one in four visual swiss chocolate offspring.

Predict Swiss Chocolate pairingsOpen the Hognose Snake calculator preloaded with a het x het pairing.Identify a Hognose Snake morphUse the morph identifier to match photos to visually identifiable traits.

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