Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I read this in a past forum:

"When you breed 100% hets to a normal you can get 50% hets, you then breed all the females back to their 100% father"

Is this safe to do or will this cause birth defects?

Incest is quite common accross the entire animal kingdom especially in mammals that live in packs. I would think it occurs less often in Balls due to the fact that they aren't social. It will certainly increase the risk of recessive genetic disorders... but it also increases the chances of propagating the genetic mutations everyone desires. There haven't been many proven genetic disorders in snakes so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

You don't get 100% hets, you would get about 50% hets and you wouldn't be able to tell which ones were the hets.

If you want 100% hets you would need to breed eg. an albino to a normal, or a pied to a normal

if you breed an albino to a 100%het, you would get about half albino's and half hets.

Yes they get bred back and forth all over the place.

hope this helped

steve

All of the recessive mutations were inbred at one point to propegate the morph. It is being done all the time with no ill effect that we know of.

I would say to outcross to new bloodline after the 2nd generation to keep genetics strong. The good thing is lots of captive hatched females from Afrika were raised to breed into the mutations to produce hets and consequently spreading the genes into greater number of unrelated ball pythons.

Hope this helps