Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have an 05 male pyro that, since I bought him, has had a kink in his tail. I dont specifically know if it was something he was born with or whether or not it was an injury. Anyway, my main concern is whether or not it will affect his ability to copulate. The kink is post-vent but is almost rigid (maybe full of scar tissue?) and I worry about his abilities to interlock with a female. I have never heard of a tail kink being genetic so that aspect doesnt bother me. I'll try and get some pics up as soon as he's done digesting and I can handle him.

Being that he and his mate will be the first snakes I've attempted to breed, I need to make sure of a few things and this is one of them

Thanks for any advice

Avery M

Most likely, your snake hatched with that kink. From my experience, I think genetics can have something to do with kinks. I have an alterna female that's thrown a couple kinked babies with 4 different males. The males have been bred to other females and produced no kinked babies.

We had one kinked baby from an unrelated alterna pair this year too.

If anyone else has theories about kinked tails, I'd like to hear them.

Tom Anderson

I agree with tom in that I wouldn't assume the kink isn't genetic. I think it depends on the origin of the kink which is impossible to tell just by looking at the snake.

Some kinks are clearly genetic and are obviously passed on. Sometimes a snake with a mild kink will through totally spinally deformed offspring (I saw this with a corn snake)

Other times the kink is the result of possitioning in the egg, or abnormal incubation conditions at the time of spinal developement. In this case the animal would still have hatched with the kink but it is not genetic.

Lastly the kink could be an injury, which is unfortunately common these days with everyone useing lidless sliding tubs. Obviously this wouldnt be heritable.

Regardless of why, unless it is very severe, I don't think it will effect the snakes ability to copulate. If you get normal babies then you are good to go. If you get deformed babies than the only responsible thing is to not breed that male anymore.