Culling

[soy.lor.n]

I think the difference here is that albinism is a color issue not really a physical deformity. If the snake were an albino in the wild, then yes I would see what your saying as the snake would have a hard time hunting with its natural camouflage gone, but this doesn't apply in a captivity setting.

I agree, but I'm not the one saying we should cull animals because they wouldn't survive in the wild

[West Coast Jungle]

Unfortunately when you have bred many animals you are gonna run into a deformity or condition that may be a painful existence which eventually ends up in slow death. many times we try to save or rescue the hatchling only to see it suffer. When you have gone through this process you start to learn that culling is sometimes the right thing to do. Nature would have never allowed this creature to last very long.

As handlers or breeders I think this is not cut and dry and it is obviously a very personel decision.

As far as albinos or any bright morph, they have survived for millions of years most likely because as mentioned they are nocturnal and would spend most of there lives in a hole somewhere. I think thats why so many variations have survived as opposed to other snakes that are cruising through forests or jungles where camoflauge affects survival on a constant basis.

I use CO2 to prekill my rats and if I needed to cull an animal I would probably do the same thing.

[darkbloodwyvern]

Unfortunately when you have bred many animals you are gonna run into a deformity or condition that may be a painful existence which eventually ends up in slow death. many times we try to save or rescue the hatchling only to see it suffer. When you have gone through this process you start to learn that culling is sometimes the right thing to do. Nature would have never allowed this creature to last very long.

As handlers or breeders I think this is not cut and dry and it is obviously a very personel decision.

As far as albinos or any bright morph, they have survived for millions of years most likely because as mentioned they are nocturnal and would spend most of there lives in a hole somewhere. I think thats why so many variations have survived as opposed to other snakes that are cruising through forests or jungles where camoflauge affects survival on a constant basis.

I use CO2 to prekill my rats and if I needed to cull an animal I would probably do the same thing.

it's sad but true. If i may anthromorphize nature, she has pretty much unlimited resources and no need or want to "allow" anything to survive. If a ball dies, some other animal will take over it's den and rat eating habits. If we are going to keep the pets we have healthy, they need to be pretty sound genetically because we don't have natural processes eliminating the genes that cause extreme deformities. If i get a baby that is not breedable but survives it's deformity in a way that seems healthy I am happy to keep it for the rest of its life. Otherwise, euthenasia is the best way to prevent it from passing on faulty genes. That is, assuming the genes are responsible for the deformity rather than bad husbandry

[m0esgirl]

i think that once i get into breeding ( in two to three years, hopefully!) if i hatch a baby that is deformed, i would then try to see what its deformities are (taking to vet to see if there is anything wrong internally as well as externally) and if the baby wouldnt be able to live a comfy life, i would have the vet put it down. now if the snake would be able to live relatively comfortably, i WOULD keep it. no matter how much more effort it would take to care for it. just my two cents though. bottom line, if its deformed but can live comfy, no culling or breeding.

[Dr_Gonz0]

Yeah, I was just talking about albinism in general which makes it very hard to survive in the wilderness. And since he said something about how anything that was less than perfect wouldn't survive, I was wondering if that included all albinos. I'm sure many of the other morphs also have problems surviving in the wild- I just happen to know that albinos of pretty much all species are at a serious disadvantage.

Normally i would agree with this, as albinos stand out and would be targets for predators. However, ball pythons rarely are out during daylight hours in the wild, and are mostly nocturnal. That right there is why albinos, pieds, and other insanely bright colored ball pythons are able to survive in the wild.

I think he was more referring to physical deformities rather than phenotype traits.

Robin