The Official Birth Defect Documentary *Graphic picture warning*

Who freezes defective, deformed babies? Most people. All of the big breeders I'm friends with and most mid-range breeders as well.
I'm kind of a hands-off breeder when it comes to the more delicate issues involving ball pythons (namely death) as I am quite hands on with palpating females, aspirating eggs that are bound, etc. but for some reason, crushing the skull of a living creature is just something I can't get the courage to do.
Ricky, you are more than entitled to your opinion, but having only been in the hobby for a few short years, you really haven't experienced most issues that arise from having produced a number of babies and having to deal with their issues.
I also find it quite disheartening that I am directed to this thread to find you bad-mouthing me about my practices.
It seems we were the best of friends last fall when you were calling me asking for advice for the (presumably bacterial) respiratory infections that were running through your collection and now you talk poop about me? Oh well.
I glad to hear that you stocked up on a dozen bottles of F10; I've read that it is great for eliminating the symptoms of non-bacterial respiratory infections.
I hope you've finally got that under control without too many losses.
Take care.

My kink/deformity experiences...

Morph: 50% Possible Het. Pied Male
Defect: Kink in neck
Possible Reason for Defect: Unknown, however the rest of the clutch died during incubation at random. (5 fertile eggs total in clutch)
Parental Pairing: 100% Het. Pied Male X Normal Female
Total # of Clutches Produced: First Clutch (I have produced 8 clutches total as of this 2013 season including this one)

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...ke/mine004.jpg

Additional Info: This was a 2009 clutch. All fertile eggs, except one, died during incubation. Because of the kink in the hatchling's neck, he could not eat and passed away 3 months later. I have pictures of the deceased babies as well. The kink does not look severe, however it was impossible for him to swallow food.
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Morph: 50% Possible Het. Pied (unknown gender)
Defect: Kinking
Possible Reason for Defect: Unknown. Incubation was perfect, however, this offspring shares a father with the above hatchling. We think there may have been a genetic issue. The father passed away of unknown causes in 2012.
Parental Pairing: 100% Het. Pied Male X Normal Female
Total # of Clutches Produced: Sixth Clutch (I have produced 8 clutches total as of this 2013 season including this one)

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/Picture1.gif

Additional Info: This was a 2012 clutch. The other two hatchlings from this clutch survived. One had a slight kink in her tail but she eats and defecates normally. The other sibling was completely healthy with no kinks.
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Morph: Pinstripe
Defect: Severe Kinking, Fused bodies
Possible Reason for Defect: Dehydration of eggs part way through incubation. I don't recall how far along they were.
Parental Pairing: Dinker Male X Pinstripe Female
Total # of Clutches Produced: Seventh Clutch (I have produced 8 clutches total as of this 2013 season including this one)

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...psf09f9a9e.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...psebedd986.jpg

Additional Info: This is a 2013 Clutch. Five eggs total with 4 pinstripes and 1 normal. Still waiting on the normal to hatch, but so far it appears healthy. All pinstripes have passed away prior to hatching. The pinstripe mother has produced healthy offspring in the past. This was the father's first clutch.
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Morph: Spider
Defect: Swollen Head, Passed away during incubation
Possible Reason for Defect: Unknown. Its siblings incubated full term and I am awaiting their hatching.
Parental Pairing: Spider Male X Normal Female
Total # of Clutches Produced: 8th Clutch (I have produced 8 clutches total as of this 2013 season including this one)

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps64773851.jpg

Additional Info: This is a 2013 Clutch. So far the siblings seem healthy. Still waiting for 3 normals from this clutch to hatch. One spider male hatched and appears healthy.

Are deformities like this more common with certain morphs??

My snake that I hope to breed one day is a Het For Carmel...is there a high percentage of this kind if stuff happening to the babies??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mephibosheth1

Are deformities like this more common with certain morphs??

My snake that I hope to breed one day is a Het For Carmel...is there a high percentage of this kind if stuff happening to the babies??

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There are certain morphs that are prone to deformities. Caramels, if I remember correctly are likely to get kinks.

This thread is a huge help! I have a het genetic stripe spider who I eventually plan on breeding. This really gives me insight on potential problems and complications. And also on choosing his mate. I would hate to have a bad clutch because of a lethal combination.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/10/11/qy2ehu3e.jpg
This is a caramel girl that was given to me as a hatchling. She has never had issues of any kind. She eats ,poops and sheds with no problems and is the only bp I've ever had that that hasn't missed a meal. I would never even think of breeding her cause her kinks but she is an awesome pet. Not sure how other people feel about it but I couldn't let her be frozen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vankmen.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/10/11/qy2ehu3e.jpg
This is a caramel girl that was given to me as a hatchling. She has never had issues of any kind. She eats ,poops and sheds with no problems and is the only bp I've ever had that that hasn't missed a meal. I would never even think of breeding her cause her kinks but she is an awesome pet. Not sure how other people feel about it but I couldn't let her be frozen.

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I feel the same way. I could never put any animal in a freezer to die. It makes me so sad to even think about it. I'm glad your beautiful girl wasn't frozen.


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Aww. What a beautiful girl. <3 If she's doing that well, there would be no reason to put her down.

Morph: Double het VPI snow

Deformity: Badly kinked neck, slightly underformed lower jaw.

What happened: The air conditioning failed while we were out of town at a wedding, the house got up to 100F for a couple days.

Pairing: VPI axanthic het albino (dame) to albino poss het VPI axanthic (sire).

Total number of clutches and/or hatchlings you have produced: 9 clutches to date, ~40 live hatchlings total. This was a bad year with the air conditioning failure, I lost 4 eggs from 4 clutches. Last year I only lost 1 egg from 4 clutches.

Photos: Here's a video of the kinked male trying to move around. That's his mean sister guarding him. (She totally bit me in between the clips, too.)

https://vimeo.com/76673425

His lower jaw might also be slightly under-formed. It's hard to see in the photo, but his upper teeth sort of stick out on one side.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-n...kinked_jaw.JPG

Other comments: This was one of two clutches laid during the air conditioning outage. The black pastel clutch made it through relatively unscatched (one egg died, the rest of the babies hatched healthy and very fat). But the VPI snow clutch was a disaster. Two of the VPI snow eggs developed mold and eventually died a week before hatching. Both contained extremely kinked hatchlings, one of which was the only albino in the clutch. The other two eggs survived. Those contained a male and female hets. The female is apparently healthy (if super bitey). The male is much less bitey, but he has a terrible neck kink and slightly deformed jaw. He has difficulty moving from point A to point B, and I've been advised to euthanize him. I'm holding out to see if he's able to eat or not.

Wow. Poor little guy.:( He and the sister are very attractive looking snakes. It hurt my neck watching him try to right himself into that first upright position.
Judging by the angle and position of his kink, I'm not sure how he can pass food. It would have to be undersized feeders in my opinion.

Good luck with him. Some snakes surprise us sometimes.

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