Do you avoid morphs with known genetic flaws?

[Serpent_Nirvana]

Any time you breed the babies can be messed up. For years I have been breeding spider and spider combos, cinnys and cinny combos. Never had a genetic problem with any of the resulting babies.

That said, I have had plenty of problems with pastel, pinstripe, yellow belly and normal babies.

If you are super worried about making babies with issues, my advice to you is don't breed at all.

I meant to respond to this post, then got distracted by something shiny.

I can see what you're driving at, though I think your logic is a little bit flawed. Yes, any pairing of one animal to another animal with the intention of making baby animals brings with it the risk that the baby animals will be in some way flawed, and may even need to be humanely euthanized. There are definitely environmental (non-genetic) factors that can lead to birth defects; it can't always be avoided. I am absolutely of a belief that if you aren't willing to cull, then breeding may not be for you, because if you hatch out, say, a ball python with its organs on the outside (which does happen on occasion), you're going to need to be willing to put that poor creature out of its misery ASAP and an unwillingness to do that would be inhumane.

That said, I think there's an important difference between the risk of defects inherent in any breeding, and the risk of defects in bloodlines of animals with known heritable defects. I am not trying to state that it's uniformly wrong to breed these animals. I can see the argument that I *think* you're trying to make; that since the incidence of severe impairment in these morphs is fairly low, and the overall incidence of birth defects in pythons is relatively high due to the stresses of incubation, the additional risk of breeding these mutations is negligible. I get that; I can see that argument.

However, I think that to imply that those who wish to minimize their chances of producing flawed offspring by avoiding mutations with known flaws should avoid breeding altogether is a bit excessive, and I think somewhat misses the point. I think what I'm getting at isn't whether or not people want to produce flawed offspring; obviously nobody does. I think my question is, are you okay with propagating a mutation that is known to harbor the potential for a given flaw -- even if you personally never produce a flawed baby.

Obviously that's a totally personal preference. I think that for many, it might help to know what the actual incidence of the disease in that morph was -- for example, will 1/10 spiders be a train wreck, or is it more like 1/10,000? For some, though, even 1/10,000 is too much of a risk, and I think that's to be respected as well.

Gah, that was pedantic. Apologies.