Learned a lot from this thread. More than I wanted to know, frankly. I had heard about this being a problem in Europe, but did not know how serious it was over here. Perfect storm of unfortunate events. Small captive population of protected species and a limited gene pool. Highly mobile species with huge home range (like an indigo) are more likely to suffer from inbreeding than relatively immobile species like a ball python. Purebred dogs which are closely related also exhibit genetic flaws (deafness, missing teeth, shortened life spans). Good info, just a bit tough to take.