First, you didn't answer my question. How many kinked up hatchlings do you see in the wild?



First, I would say as a rule very few hatchlings are seen in the wild to begin with, and in captivity 100% of them are seen. This first fact will skew any data right off the bat. And those that are more profoundly deformed will likely not make it very far away from the egg if they even get out at all. I have no reason at all to suspect that somebody went out and released a kinked up snake, most people I know would either euthanize it or simply raise it if it was healthy enough to eat and move in a plastic box. I believe that my good luck in finding it was only surpassed by my bad luck in that the animal had kinks that could be felt (they were not readily visible).



I believe it does happen in the wild, and I have seen it before, I had a milk snake that was very visibly kinked up that was a wc adult and she even produced eggs. And I have seen photos of wc animals with kinks, mostly in the tail.



I have no doubt that there is most likely a higher occurrence of deformity in captive animals due to the diet that is likely marginal compared to the variety they will eat in nature (that they are adapted to eat to begin with) and also the assorted methods of incubation providing assorted results for assorted people.



But to say that this would never happen in the wild is a stretch.
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Herp Conservation Unlimited



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