Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am considering buying a pair of brazilian rainbows to breed. My friend is going to cut me a great deal for the pair. The problem is, they are siblings. He says it's fine to mate siblings to eachother, but I didn't think that was such a good idea! Is it possible to mate siblings and have an all-right clutch? I know that's a stupid question, but I've never bred brother to sister before and I only have one persons' opinion on it- the one who wants my money!

NP

maybe ive been in the BP forum for too long, but i thought that selective inbreeding wasnt resulting in diminished or retarted snakes.

It's Always just been a rule of thumb for me, I've never dont it, mainly because you may not have a problem right away, but you may have a health problem develop later, As far as im concerned they arent my snakes, so do as you wish, just piped in my opinion!

Generally speaking, it is okay to breed first generation siblings to one another. In fact many breeders do so on a regular basis....even several more generations out. This is how certain traits are "proven"......breeding a trait back to a parent or sibling. In an ideal world I would say don't do it. However, the breeder's experience tells us that the babies will be okay. Inbreeding stengthens some quailities and diminishes others. It should be okay to breed the siblings, but ideally I would want some unrelated blood in the mix.

Linda

>>I am considering buying a pair of brazilian rainbows to breed. My friend is going to cut me a great deal for the pair. The problem is, they are siblings. He says it's fine to mate siblings to eachother, but I didn't think that was such a good idea! Is it possible to mate siblings and have an all-right clutch? I know that's a stupid question, but I've never bred brother to sister before and I only have one persons' opinion on it- the one who wants my money!

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I don't breed any snakes atleast not yet but I have read a lot on it. From what I have read it is ok to an extint to breed siblings to each other or to a parent. Now you can over inbreed and get results you may not want because you do have to remember that any unwanted genes in those snakes will sooner or later come out and be seen if a lot of inbreeding is done. But sometimes inbreeding is the only way to prove a trait. I think once you have proven that trait you should then bring a different snake into your gene pool to make it a little more diverse. That is just my two cents on the situation.

Breeding siblings should nor be a problem BUT, what's the story with the parents, are they unrelated? If they were siblings, then this would be at least second generation inbreeding, probably not preferred. Also, what do you plan on doing with the babies? If the plan is to sell all, then should be stated they are related and from sibling parents. It might be harder to sell pairs, most of my customers want unrelated pairs/trio's when getting more than one. If you are thinking of keeping back some, would be more inbreeding. IMO, unless you are trying to breed some specific trait, would be better off with unrelateds. Having said that, I am line breeding to attempt to produce two different lines of BRB's, one has a motley or broken up pattern and the other has full circles or bullseyes in place of the normal arches.
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Well, thanks for the help everyone! I think I'm gonna go ahead and get the pair of siblings (found out that the parents were unrelated) and see how their first clutch turns out. If I see something I don't like, then I'll just sell one and buy another, no biggie.
Once again, thanks for the help!