I'm seeing a lot of concerned people over on this thread http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ming-Tomorrow! about people suddenly deciding to breed their desert females because of this big news. I didn't want to derail that thread so I figured I'd post my own.
I still consider myself pretty new to ball pythons in general and I'm not all that familiar with the desert gene other than to stay away from them because the females have "issues" so, I'm sorry if these questions have been asked before. Just asking out of curiosity and to maybe save some of these females that may be put at risk. With that said, I do believe this should be left to the experts until things are sorted out and confirmed if there really is a risk to the females. However, I do believe more should be done to sort it out or at least talk about what has been done so that people don't just jump on the bandwagon at the first tiny glance of hope.
Are the issues with the females consistent and are they MOSTLY life threatening? I guess what I'm asking is what exactly is the "issue" they have? So far in that thread I've read slugs and eggbound females but is that all? I ask because this can happen with other reptiles especially with their first season of breeding. Sometimes after their first bad season they do just fine. Kind of like with humans or other animals for that matter.... the first is usually the hardest.
Has there been a proven explanation on what exactly is causing the issues? A deformity of some kind maybe and if so, have all desert females proven to have this same deformity? Or maybe it's the eggs or development of the eggs themselves?
How many desert females have actually been bred and proven to have these "issues" and was there a particular line that was having the problems? Was there a study done to confirm that out of ____ female deserts ____ of them were infertile ____ of them slugged out and ____ of them became eggbound. Information on what they were bred to as well.
How long ago was it that everyone stopped breeding these females due to them having problems? I thought desert was a newish morph but could it be possible that through out-breeding even a little bit, there's a chance that the issues aren't as common anymore except with the original females?
Again, I'm not saying one way or the other but I would like more information than what is given, which is almost nothing about what is happening with these females. All you really hear is that they're bad and stay away unless you want them as a pet only. If deserts do come out of those eggs, I'm sure having more information for the owner would be beneficial, as well as people thinking about breeding and risking their females. I know that depending on the answers to the above questions, I probably would not risk my female (if I had one) knowing that she has a very slim to none chance but if someone just told me in general "this person had luck on this lottery ticket but don't try it yourself" I might think on getting one anyway.
Reply With Quote