Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A ball python breeder told me its ok to breed brother and sister for 3 or 4 generations. This seems 100% wrong to me but I want all of your opinions. I don't even have any that are related but I'm still curious. Would you breed a boa to its grandmother, or breed cousins, or would you make sure they are not realted whatsoever. Thanks.

Here is a picture of male Sharp male and my Sharp DH sunglow.

Mike

Most morphs are proven by breeding related boas to each other. I have a pair that are bor and sis and I will be breeding them to each other. Im not sure if I will breed one of the babies back to mom or not.
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True Redtails

>>A ball python breeder told me its ok to breed brother and sister for 3 or 4 generations. This seems 100% wrong to me but I want all of your opinions. I don't even have any that are related but I'm still curious. Would you breed a boa to its grandmother, or breed cousins, or would you make sure they are not realted whatsoever. Thanks.
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>>Here is a picture of male Sharp male and my Sharp DH sunglow.
>>
>>Mike
>>

Called line breeding an yes alot of this happens in the boa world to prove out a certain color morph an other genetic traits!It is very common!If I am off a little bit hopefully a more experienced person will pitch in!Hope this answers your question's!Eric[Hypoboa]
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E&C's Exotic House of Reptiles

I really don't see the need to do so unless your trying to prove out something to be genetic. Many wi breed brother/sister to each other to do this, or back to parent, but I would be keeping track on who's related to who so it doesn't go further than that.
I have done something similar, but tried to be careful. EX: I had a striped male (not proven to be genetic). So I kept one of his female babies. The next year, I bred him to another female, and kept a male. Those are now courting this year, and the female is in shed. I saw copulation, but missed ovulation - So I'm still undetermined. Here's a bad pic (reflection from plexiglass). Reverse stripe, and laddertail sibs from different mothers.

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--aka DMOG68

Yeah this is called line breeding.
What are the advantages of line breeding?
You know what you are getting (mostly).
It gives you the opportunity to "set" desired characteristics in your lines which you hope will be easier to replicate in future generations

That was an answer I found on the internet. Line breeding is well known in the pedigree dog world. You have to keep excellent records, and limit or regulate the breedings carefully. It can back fire on you too. Instead of getting a strengthened desired trait you can get deformities etc...
The way I understand it, it is always better to go from son to mother and not brother/sister. Hope this helps Andy

The more unrelated the pair the stronger their genepool will be. There are known boa deformities that have been hypothesized to of been caused from excessive inbreeding. I personally believe deformaties we see in albinos are moreso from excessive inbreeding vs the supposed weakening of the mutation itself (amelanism, a.k.a. albinism). We would see more inbreeding from a recessive line vs a polygenic or codominant line. The majority of het albinos that are sold are probably sibling pairs (just a guess). The bang for buck for the pair deal is too cash effecient to pass up for many, considering its a recessive trait and they need a het (or homozygous for that matter) mate anyway.

Crosses are geneticly superior to all pure-breds. Same concept as whats known as "hybrid vigour". Hybrid animals are always more hardy and overall healthier with less mutations and deformaties versus purebreds.

Bottom line: By inbreeding you undoubtably weaken the genepool to at least some degree (what degree is debatable). The only time I would reccomend inbreeding it is to extract or prove out a particular trait.

thanks
mike