I have an issue I've been trying to decide what to do with and I thought I'd get the community's opinion.
So last year I got a clutch from a pastel leopard het desert ghost x pastel desert ghost. She gave me 10 eggs and all hatched what seem to be healthy snakes. The issue is they all have short tails. I've come to the conclusion that it is not genetic and that it was some type of incubation issue because every hatchling in this clutch and the one other clutch that was in the incubator at the same time. The two clutches have no relationship.
So now my issue is what to do with the hatchlings that I am not holding back. They are fairly valuable but with a birth defect that does not affect anything but the cosmetic look of having a short tail. They all eat great and show no signs of any other issue. I've raised them for almost a year with no issues. They all pop like normal so I believe they should all be able to be bred but this unknown and what makes things tricky. It isn't genetic so if they can breed successfully, they would have normal babies. I'm keeping g a few to try breeding myself but I definitely don't need or want to keep all 10.
So now the issue, finding them homes. I've thought about giving them away to good homes as pet only but I feel if people know they are 100% het desert ghost, they will end up trying to breed them. So then there is the option of selling them at a discount due to the short tail. What is a fair mark down? I was thinking maybe 75% of the going rate and seeing what kind of interest I get.
It's an odd situation. I've not found any other cases of something like this happening before so I'm just going to have to decide what I think is fair and go from there.
Here is an example of one of the hatchlings so you can see the short tail. It is definitely noticeable but doesn't seem to affect them in any way. The top girl is mine, you can compare her to the Male I purchased below who is not related and a slightly different morph combo.
Sent from my SM-J737V using Tapatalk
Reply With Quote