Quote Originally Posted by Brandon Osborne View Post
MOST of what you mention is due to the gene. As I said before, even with outcrossed animals and new import blood, these things still pop up. Outcrossing spiders, cinnies, black pastels and caramels does not make the abnormalities disappear. It's part of the gene. If you aren't prepaired for the consequences don't work with the genes.

I bred son to mother Pewters in 2009/10 and had a perfectly normal clutch other than producing two very oddly patterned Super Pewters.

I'll reiterate....snakes are non-migratory animals. We have these morphs because of inbreeding in wild populations. It happens because micro-populations exist withing other micro-populations and these snakes live with inbreeding their entire lives. Breeding sibling to sibling, father to daughter, father to grand daughter and so on. Do some research on feild observations by Frank Retes. You may be enlightened.

By the way, I am in no way trying to come off as harsh. Just stating valid points.




Stating valid points is good. I understand that some inbreeding can be done with little to no bad affects. It is also absolutely needed to prove out a trait, but IMO it should not be used as a short cut, commonly practiced or suggested to be done as an accepted breeding habit.

In the wild animals tend to avoid inbreeding through dispersal and inbuilt behavioral mechanisms. Yes I am sure some inbreeding does happen in the wild. Mother nature has a way of killing off most offspring to help eliminate inbreeding. Lots of things happen in the wild. Animals do wander, get killed, get relocated and such.



As far as Mr. Retes he seems to feel the same way. Assuming this is the same Mr. Frank Retes;

Leezardlady - Hi Frank, how much do you use inbreeding? Do you consciously make an effort to limit inbreeding in your colonies? Have you seen any detrimental effects by inbreeding generation after generation?

Frank Retes - Its hard to say, we have many, many projects, some we have no choice but to inbreed. We have never seen any bad effects on inbreeding, but we have not been around for 50 years either. We do feel monitors inbreed normally in nature, but nature has a way of introducing new blood.

This was taken from a Frank Retes Chat Transcript 12/14/99. He is also a Monitor breeder fyi.