Quote Originally Posted by kellysballs View Post
Appology accepted Mike. Like I said I am not trying to attack just trying to help with a healthy debate. I have only had one instance of a deformed baby hatching out. I have spoke at length with my vet and two of my biology professors at stetson and the consensus is that it is a genetic defect.

Now I have taken steps to make sure that it does not happen again (I will not breed those two snakes together again), and I will make sure this baby never enters the breeding gene pool. However I am left with a very difficult dilema, what to do with the siblings and parents.

Some one stated that the hypothetical deformed baby "just lost the genetic lottery" but what that really means is most likely somewhere along that particular babies lineage one or more of it's parents, gparents...ect, carries the gene for what ever deformity has occured. With out extensive genetic testing there is no way to know. Think about breast cancer in humans, they now have a genetic test that will tell you if you posses the particular gene thought to cause it. 20 years ago this was unheard of.

I personally will not cull the entire line because they may carry a gene that might cause a deformity (most people do not). How do the rest of you feel about it, breeders or not. If you produced an animal that was deformed would you sell the siblings or parents? Would you allow the siblings to enter the breeding gene pool, either your own or another persons?
just because you get one or more deformed babies does not mean its genetic it could be just incubation issues or even development issues with the eggs inside the mother