Bee w/ wobble

[anatess]

I've never heard of a snake dying because of kinks, although I'm sure it could happen if severe enough. I have, however, heard of Spiders being culled because their condition was too severe and they were unable to function.

The fact is that they can not lead a "normal" life. Imagine you're a snake and you're trying to use your instincts to stay still or you want to explore something, but are unable to because your body is too busy doing its own thing. Sure, they can eat and breed like a normal snake, but their defect is still a handicap.

For arguments sake, let's use my other example of an eyeless snake. I'm sure they can breed and eat just fine in captivity. Would you have any qualms about breeding them because you liked the pattern on their skin? You may or may not, but I personally wouldn't want to continue that genetic handicap.

Not sure I agree with this 100%. A spider who corkscrews does not necessarily mean he DIDN'T WANT to corkscrew. If you look at the videos out there, they corkscrew when they want to explore something. They lay still if they don't.

It's not quite the same as an eyeless snake. First of all, I have never heard of an eyeless snake being genetic. But, let's just say you got a morph that consistently produces an eyeless snake... A blind snake has lost a primary body function, although it still has other senses to compensate. You can't say a corkscrewy spider has lost a function unless he is one of the rare "train wreck" occurrences. He achieves his objective by different means - looks kinda weird to us - but it's his way of doing it. There's nothing to give evidence that it hurts the snake. An eyeless snake who thrives in captivity does not necessarily mean it needs to be culled. It is a matter of what you accept as "within the bounds of normal".

A trait is considered a defect because it looks/acts "different" than normal. But then, all morphs are "different" than normal... we just have accepted those insane colors as "cool" instead of "defect". I mean, a BEL can be considered a defect - a snake without color...

So, if you see eyelessness or corkscrewy as normal (a cool trait for a certain morph) having no evidence that it hurts the snake whatsoever or prevents it from performing all its necessary functions, I don't see an issue. It all then boils down to preference. Just like some people have no desire to own a white snake, some people have no desire to own a wobbly snake.

Train wrecks are different. These are the ones that has the wobble so bad that it can't find direction so it can't perform certain functions - like strike at prey. These are rare occurrences. This would be then synonymous to any bp morph that is born without a head, for instance. There is no way that snake can survive. So, if a breeding pair of bp's produce a headless snake in one clutch but doesn't produce it in another... would you continue breeding the pair? It's all up to you. I wouldn't see it as bad if you continue to breed them.

I personally think my spider's manifestation of a wobble - the little vibration he does with his head right before a strike - is awesome. It tells us exactly when he is going to strike so we can make sure our fingers are out of range. It also looks cute when he does his puppy-dog periscope position...