Quote Originally Posted by Tikall View Post
James, are you being serious or trolling? I know dogs have been extensively line and inbred, but to say you don't see deformities is boggling. The guidelines for English bulldogs recently had to be changed from HUGE head to LARGE head because of all the health problems they suffer from (and breeders were enraged for changing the standards to allow for healthier animals, oh no!). They can't even breed naturally and need to be artificially inseminated. Many purebred dogs suffer from a laundry list of health issues, and guess what it's from? The English bulldog is just one breed, but look at dobermans, German shepherds, and many more. Certain breeds are very well known for their own health issues.

With snakes we are not trying to change their shape or anything too drastic, and for most of the genes it is clear how they are inherited and close inbreeding is so easily avoided, yet you don't want to?

I'm not saying anything even close to "we should stop breeding for morphs," but I do think we should start breeding for healthier snakes. By the time a deformity becomes tied to a line and many people already have the snakes, do you think everyone will suddenly drop their projects? I highly doubt it. I realize wobbling is tied to the spider gene and kinking is tied to the caramel gene (and at this point I doubt either are from inbreeding), but what if inbreeding led to no eyes in some hatchlings of a ghost line, and none of the smaller breeders knew until they started hatching out their own eyeless ghosts? Again, would everyone drop all of their projects with this line or would we just have more freezer babies every year? How about we just avoid it with smart breeding plans in the first place?
I totally agree with you .