Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I have been hearing a lot over the last few weeks about inbreeding in reptiles. Everyone seems to discourage it, if not to dismiss it immediately. In all the years I've been keeping reptiles it never occured to me that it was even an issue. I guess I just figured that they didn't know the difference. In our culture the stigma surrounding incest seems to be merely psychological wrongdoing, so i figured it did not pertain to reptiles. (As far as I know they do not care about meeting social standards)
Anyways, about 7 months ago I purchased two young high yellow leo's from a local dealer. I raised them seperately and made sure they grew at equal rates. A little over a month ago I was able to determine that I had indeed gotten a pair, so I introduced them to one another. It now looks like my female is pregnant. I am almost positive they both hatched out of the same clutch, so what are the real reprocussions? Why is inbreeding so bad amongst reptiles. Serious and helpful explanations would be appreciated. thanks.

in thinking that the only reason not to inbreed is to avoid the stigma and that it is 'ok' to do it because there are no other effects. There are. In animals as well as humans, certain mutations can occur which are deleterious (of course some are desirable too). These may occur spontaneously or be acquired by genetic flow from the parents. Breeding animals from the same families increases the chance of having 2 animals with a deleterious gene come together (which may not have an apparent bad effect in an animal with only one copy of the gene), and the resulting offspring having some serious problems. Think of domestic dog breeds---the dalmation's deafness, the labs' bad hips, the chinese cresteds' teeth falling out at a young age---all are caused by inbreeding to increase certain other desirable traits, and look we got these very bad ones in place and they will be very hard to eliminate from the gene pool. Reptiles haven't been manipulated to the extent where such problems are as evident but they do occur....however in some of the new and rare morphs, the only way to get a homozygous individual is to breed heterozygous relatives.
So, the bottom line is....you can do it, and animals sure don't know or care that it's their brother or mother that they are mating with, but you have to consider the potential genetic effects (it's called 'inbreeding depression'--basically reduced genetic fitness of the animal/species) as well and decide whether you think the risk is worth it.
I don't normally post on this forum but just wanted to post on this. hope it explains it to you and you can make an educated decision for yourself on what to do.
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Sue Barnett
1.0 Florida King (Vega)
0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
1.0 Crested gecko (Gator)
0.1 Egyptian spiny mouse (Mia)
4.2 mini rex rabbits (Basil, Pippin, Reggie, Hayden, Jackie and Peek-a-boo)
0.1 Plott hound (Molly)
1.0 half Arab (Zarr)
1.0 Betta (Flash)

I agree... there are health issues with inbreeding. Perhaps once you will not notice it, but keep breeding back into the same bloodline and you will start to have issues. Kinked tails, blindness, leos born missing toes, eyelids, even feet. Most of these are due to inbreeding to some level. Some morphs are more likely because they were linebred too much. For example, the LVPA have more problems than tangerines. Breeders do it to keep a morph and develop it further, but you can only go so far with it.
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Brian Skibinski
Milwaukee Reptiles
Brian@MilwaukeeReptiles.com

Thanks guys. That was just the type of explanation I was looking for. I'm going out later today to get a seperate tank for my female. Perhaps sometime in the next few weeks I'll also pick up another female from a seperate dealer so that I can breed her with my original male. Thanks for the help.

sounds like a great idea--I know there are lots of beautiful animals out there and it shouldn't be too hard to find a mate. If your female is already gravid, well, nothing to do but make sure she gets those eggs out and hatched, and in all likelihood the babies will be fine. I can't speak for others but I do appreciate your responsibility in taking this course of action....I wish people more breeding mammals would do the same.
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Sue Barnett
1.0 Florida King (Vega)
0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
1.0 Crested gecko (Gator)
0.1 Egyptian spiny mouse (Mia)
4.2 mini rex rabbits (Basil, Pippin, Reggie, Hayden, Jackie and Peek-a-boo)
0.1 Plott hound (Molly)
1.0 half Arab (Zarr)
1.0 Betta (Flash)

Genetic defects and retardation are FAR more likely in inbred humans, it's not just a moral issue. That's why there are so many jokes about the intelligence of people from certain geographic areas where inbreeding is common. Unfortunately, the offspring are the ones who get stuck with the consequences. Inbreeding reptiles will lead to animals with less intelligence and shorter lifespan in addition to the other consequences mentioned in previous posts. Many Geckos with poor survival instincts are likely the result of inbreeding. If you're planning on breeding your male you should have more than one female(for her sake), so you might consider trading the female for a non-relative and buying another one or two females. Or you could trade the male. They'll be hard to part with if you raised 'em from hatchlings though.