Could anyone help me define the term outcrossing?
I'm a bit confused.
-Jake
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Outcrossing?
jakewise
Jul 06, 2006 11:04 PM
Replies (3)
Kat
Jul 07, 2006 11:47 AM
Outcrossing is a procedure to increase genetic diversity in a particular line of snakes and to reduce the impact of inbreeding.
All you do is breed one snake to a completely unrelated snake, then crossing back into whatever lines you were working with to recover the look you were originally going for. The result is a few more unrelated genes floating around in your pool which can help mitigate the lack of diversity caused by heavy inbreeding and the presence of bad genes.
-Kat
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Kat
Jul 07, 2006 11:49 AM
All you do is breed one snake to a completely unrelated snake, then cross the offspring back into whatever lines you were working with to recover the look you were originally going for.
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John Q
Jul 15, 2006 10:02 AM
A common practice for locking in a specific look or genetics is to raise hatchling females and breed them back to their father. It can be done in reverse, hatchling son raised and bred back to his mother. When breeding related snakes there is the chance of matching up a gene that will result in a bad trait. So outcrossing is the solution. Although I have not heard from anyone that outcrossing introduced a bad gene but it could happen. Just something to consider when looking for a new snake to add to your breeding project. Gets as much info as possible before adding a new breeder to your line bred project.
