Quote Originally Posted by Turbo Serpent View Post
Is your definition of a flaw anything that would hinder it in the wild? If that is the case almost every morph would fall into this category.

The Normal/Wild Type is that way for a reason. It is perfectly camouflaged for its habitat. An albino is going to stand out like a sore thumb, as would a BEL, or any other bright BP. Easier for a predator to spot their bright beautiful meal.

So by your comments should we simply cull all of our morphs because they may not have survived in the wild?

If we get into Natural Selection... most of the animals we breed shouldn't survive/exist or be as large as they become as fast, because meals aren't always readily available, nor are there frozen thawed rats in the wild. Captivity changes everything.

Please donj't twist my words. MY definition of a flaw is something that makes a royal unable to act in it's normal manner or obvious things like deformity.

Your argument about morphs is rediculous, for starters royals will, in the wild, spend 80-90%+ of their time underground. How exactly do you think these morphs came to captivity? You think every single wild caught morph is a young hatchling? Well I can tell you there are WC ADULT, sub adult, yearling and hatchling morphs coming out of africa every year, MANY morphs first hit the scene as a WC adult. There was a good sized (8-900G WC albino male sold only this year in the UK. Fresh import. EVERY year you can aquire (if you have the contacts and the money) PLENTY of WC pastels, ghosts, basic co-doms and basic recessive morphs. They Can and do survive in the wild.

I'm not talking about natural selection, nor having the captivity/nature argument.

But to answer your question succinctly: No, I do not mean anything that would hamper it in the wild (not that I consider being a different colour a problem for this species!). I mean anything that means the ball python cannot behave like a royal python be that neurological or physical.