Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was wondering if inbreeding snakes is as bad as other animals i know i can cause cancer and stuff in other animals and thought that it just seems like people breed inbreed snakes to get a certain color out or morph thanks in advance.

Adam

Inbreeding in a controlled situation is ok in my opinion. The problem with inbreeding is that since the snakes are related, there is a higher liklihood of sharing bad recessive genes. If two of these recessive genes show up in a baby (ie. on from each parent) it shows the effects of the bad gene. The advantage of a controlled situation is you don't have to breed the ones that show the effects of the bad genes. Thereby eventually all but elimenating the gene from the population.
You mentioned cancer. Cancer can be caused by genetics and is a tough one to deal with because it may not show up until the animal has already produced lots of offspring carrying the gene. I have this problem in my mice right now. At about 6 or 7 months the females start forming tumors. But by this time they have produced close to a hundred babies. Some of these babies have been held back for breeding and produced plenty themselves. Also, I usually retire them from breeding at about 5 or 6 months so I may not see the tumors form (or not form) until their breeding career is over!

Remember the morphs we breed for in captivity are "bad" genes in the wild.
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Martin Whalin

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