Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've gotten into a discussion in another forum on the irresponsibilities of careless breeding and unethical breeding practices of animals. One person has told me that they don't think breeding them is hard. They claim there are almost no hereditary diseases that can be passed so genetics aren't an issue at all and you just need two healthy snakes to breed.

Now... I know nothing about herps. Small animals definitely, birds some, herps? More or less clueless. What are the proper ethical breeding practices for herps? If you can source any information, point me to websites, etc. that'd be great too.

That's a tough question with different answers from different people.

There are herediary diseases. Most arn't passed on because even semi responsible breeders cull offspring that are deformed beyond colour. Still, missing eyes, large eyes, suggested immunosuppression (on account, not study), dwarfism ect have all turned up.

When it comes to inbreeding, this is necessary to obtain many of the morph differences seen in the hobby. I'm not a fan of chasing these down, so I'll say this is irresponsible, while others say it's fine. In the end though, if done minimally with introducing outside stock to the family line when possible, the offspring several generations down are still healthy and vibrant. Perhaps it should be said that inbreeding itself is not a problem, but it does increase the chances of the offspring having a problem due to combined recessive traits showing up.

Off hand, inbreeding can and does occur regularly in the wild. Many populations are confined to a single hibernaculum year after year. Other populations are otherwise small and adjunct. Crisscrossing roads and other population segmentation likely also contributes to this happening. In the wild, the rule of survival of the fittest ensures that any "defects" do not pass on, strengthening the population gene pool. Since this has been going on for millenia, and reptiles have only recently been captivated, the overall gene pool is likely stronger than our own.

Ian

I agree with Ian. While herps are not as inbred as our domestic dogs and cats, where purebred animals commonly suffer from hereditary disorders, it is ignorant to think that this cannot occur in other species.

We are already seeing effects of heavy inbreeding on species like Bearded Dragons (Pogona vitticeps), Leopard Geckos (Eublepharis macularius) and potentially Cornsnakes (Elaphe guttata).

Good beardie breeders will provide bloodlines to avoid inbreeding, because inbred beardies are doing very poorly at this point. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that inbred beardies have very poor immune systems and do not fare well.

I've heard many suggestions that the more whacked out, inbred Leopard Gecko lines like SHTCTs, APTORs and RAPTORs are more susceptible to cryptosporidiosis. I've even heard some discussions that crazy Cornsnake morphs that are very inbred may be more susceptible to crypto.

At this point, there is only anecdotal evidence and no scientific studies to back these claims up. But considering the massive inbreeding that occurs to mix, match and discover new colour and pattern mutations, this idea is not far-fetched.

What degree of inbreeding is risky or unacceptable is uncertain, but the heavily captive-bred with many mutations are certainly on the top of the list. Dogs and cats have hundreds of years of inbreeding for wacky mutations behind them, herps have only a few decades. But consider shorter gestation/incubation periods compared to domestic mammals and a few decades may be a bit longer than it seems, generation-wise.

We are on the cusp of needing to be cautious with inbreeding our heavily bred pet species. With other, less common species, sometimes we have so few healthy specimens that inbreeding is inevitable, and with only a few captive-born generations there probably won't be any ill effect.

Also keep in mind that careless, irresponsible breeders that inbreed heavily are also likely to be the ones who are not stringent with husbandry.

Overcrowded animals are stressed, and stress is bad news to herps. Poor maternal nutrition means poor amniotic nutrition and weak offspring. Sub-optimal incubation temperatures will also risk problems.

There are so many factors, that when you have a young, hotshot "breeder" whose Leopard Geckos bred by accident and s/he's claiming that everything he's doing is absolutely correct and the ideal, then take that advice with a grain of salt!

Christina
www.herptiles.net