Quote Originally Posted by kellysballs View Post
Okay here is how I feel about the issue.
Now most breeders on here are stating that they cull severly deformed animals, and all of us pretty much agree that the deformed animal should not be bred. Here is the question...What about the parents, grandparents and siblings of these animals.

If as stated before the deformed animal may pass on the trait, that means it aquired the trait in the first place from one or more of it's parents or grandparents, and that it's siblings may also carry the deformed trait hidden away in their genes. So unless you cull the entire line that produced the deformity you are adding possible carriers of deformities on to future generations.
That seems a touch excessive, though, don't you think? Now I agree if it becomes a yearly thing. If the same pair is throwing eyeless, kinked, or otherwise "grossly" deformed babies every season then they should never be paired together again. If one of that pair keeps throwing deformed babies with other snakes, then that snake should be retired from breeding. I'd go so far as to say the retired snake should never be sold; it becomes the breeder's responsibility to keep that snake from ever having the chance of reproducing again.

Culling an entire line because of one deformed baby doesn't make sense to me. That one baby lost the genetic lottery and happened to get a mash of poor genes, or a complication in the egg, and so ended up with a bad spine (or whatever else). If the parents and all other siblings are healthy then it's obviously not a dominant defect getting thrown around.