Monster Pieds?

[Serpent_Nirvana]

I would have to question a pathologist that would make such a statement after testing only a few animals from one person's collection. Certain pathogens can reek havoc not only on the immune systems, but on the physiology of the animals. To make such a broad statement with very minimal research is irresponsible in my opinion.



Is this based on what the pathologist said, what you have read, or from experience? I feel quite the opposite. I have never had a single issue in regards to health from any pied. I have a very nice group and have friends that would say the same about theirs.

I didn't say that I agreed with what the pathologist said (sorry, I should have clarified that) ... Quite the opposite. I think he was making a wild leap based on a statistical fluke, and I don't personally think that being piebald had a damn thing to do with the snakes getting pneumonia. (IIRC, there were a whopping three pied females that died, and may even have been a few other snakes in the bunch.) However, it was a wild leap speculation made in public, in front of an entire conference of veterinary pathologists, and that caused a classmate of mine to state that she had heard that certain morphs of ball pythons have problems (referring to pieds). So, it is a rumor that is currently "out there" that reptile veterinarians may come across in their literary travels ... I'm just putting it out here so that if any of you hear it, you'll know where it came from (and take it with a large heaping portion of salt). (Incidentally, I don't think that the pathologist was trying to be hurtful to the ball python industry ... I think he just got over-excited with what he saw as a potential new discovery. I've been meaning to get in touch with him anyhow ...)

Let me clarify what I meant when I said that I think that these rumors are based in truth ... I don't mean that I think that piebalds currently have any more problems than most morphs. My personal experience (based on an N = 2, my currently female pied and one that I sold) is that they eat and grow at least as well if not better than most ball morphs.

What I do mean is that it's a VERY old rumor, and I DO believe that it is based in some fact from somewhere along the line. It may just be that, in 1993 or whenever the morph was first being established, the inbreeding was so tight that it concentrated some particularly negative genes that led to "failure to thrive" in a number of piebald lines. It may have had not one single thing to do with the piebald gene itself, but was an example of "founder effect" of sorts.

I also think that it's quite possible that, as a result of deliberate outcrossing to the strongest, biggest and healthiest wild-type balls (probably as a direct result of the "rumor") piebalds are currently one of the stronger genes to work with -- as our collective experience with them all currently seems to suggest

I do wonder if it may mean that perhaps they are a morph to use some caution with when contemplating the decision to inbreed.

I apologize if I came off as slamming the morph -- believe me, that's not my intention. The biggest problem I have with piebalds is that there aren't enough of them in my snake room ....!