Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I see a lot of breeding experiments involving breeding younger snakes with one of their parents. Will this make the snakes stupid? I'm inclined to think that if professionals are doing this, then it's okay. But some people selling pairs boast that the pairs are non-related. This makes me more inclined to purchase a male and female from two different breeders. How does all this interbreeding effect future hatchlings?

Also, if I buy a "PAIR" from a breeder, does "PAIR" imply that they are non-related?

Getting Confused Again,
Chris =/

Opinions are mixed regarding if a little inbreeding is any problem with snakes. Inbreeding is done a lot with snakes and I haven't heard anyone present evidence that it's a problem. In fact, I know corn snake breeders who have done it for many generations. However some of the more inbred lines tend to be the ones with the subtle feeding problems (ex. bloodred corns) but others claim this is just due to a locality preference for lizards as food.

We haven't been breeding ball pythons long enough to get a good feel if they are more susceptible to inbreeding depression than say corn snakes which we have been breeding a lot more generations.

Many feel that it MIGHT be a problem and try to avoid inbreeding when practical just in case. I doubt one generation of inbreeding will be a problem. The good side to all the imported ball python babies is that we have a huge gene pool in captivity so should be able to avoid any potential problems with a little effort.

A "pair" does not imply unrelated. If you wish to avoid all inbreeding you need to ask the potential sellers for as much background information as you can get. Generally very little background information is given or sometimes even kept. Perhaps we could start a registry for tracking lines both to avoid unnecessary inbreeding and to breed for better traits such as improved personality and feeding response.

...breeding albino to albino with Clark strain albinos has to my knowledge NOT lead to negative results, whereas in albino BOAS it has.

Note that with most morphs where the market has started with a single visual specimen, inbreeding F1's back to the parent is necessary to produce more visuals (simple recessive traits). Unless those fortunate enough to be in this position are holding back this info, I am unaware of any problems to date.

With the ghost market, breeding back F1's to the parent is the only way to insure genetic compatibility of the recessive gene. Again I am unaware of any problems with this line breeding.

Lastly, never ASSUME pairs are unrelated unless it is specifically stated, and even then be cautious. Many times they're actually half-sibs, with the father being the common parent.

Scott J. Michaels DVM
Serpent City