Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Why is it okay to breed related balls? Do they not end up with the same issues as other animals? Thanks.

Deanna

>>Why is it okay to breed related balls? Do they not end up with the same issues as other animals? Thanks.
>>
>> Deanna

You want them to have the same issues...the same genetic mutations and all.

That being said, I can't really say that I'm any expert on it, so I won't add any info that I've heard but have no idea on myself (this place is full of that kind of stuff).
-----
Jeremy Conrad
bpConnection
_____________

...Can't...stop...must...get...more...balls...

As far as issue I'm thinking for example my friends cat got pregnant by her son and ended up having one kitten with two faces,one was still born and the other looked normal but died in a fews days. Does stuff like this occur with balls?

There's an issue about inbreeding, or line breeding as it's more 'aesthetically-pleasingly' known, that regards the number of generations and the closeness in which it is done. How long have cats been tampered with by humans? I'll give you a hint: far longer than snakes. In fact, thousands and thousands of years longer than snakes. The great thing about sexual reproduction and DNA is the vast possibilities. Literally billions of different genetic combinations possible from just one sexual breeding. Dogs, cats, horses, hampsters, mice, rats etc have been inbred for a very long time. The first three have been inbred for so long, in fact, that we've very nearly speciated them. And evolution is still a heavily debated topic....lol. Anyway, snakes and other still-wild animals that people muck with in captivity have a genetic pool literally thousands of fathoms deeper than any modern day dog, cat, or horse. That means we can fairly safely inbreed them, even pretty closely, with very few or no ill effects. Sure, sometimes negative anomalies happen when the right (or rather wrong) recessive genes are accidentally combined (see: albino boas occasionally born eyeless). However, the likelihood of such an occurrence is quite remote.

All this being said, I don't believe it a good idea to inbreed generation after generation, over and over. Eventually, your gene pool is going to shallow and then you're going to have things like your friend experienced with those cats. But for a couple or a few generations to establish a particular desired genetic anomaly is almost always harmless.

I hope this helped clear a few things up between reptiles and domestic animals.
-----
Chance Duncan
www.rivervalleyexotics.com

Thank you. That was helpful.