Quote Originally Posted by Serpent_Nirvana View Post
I would love to be able to look at it like this, and I do hope that down the road I feel comfortable adding a desert project. Right now, I just don't trust that the females I produced would remain pets, and not bred due to ignorance or "just to see what happens."

Moreover, I could even try to take your argument one step further and posit that the infertility of females could eventually be a good thing for the project, keeping numbers down as only 1/4 of all offspring from a desert breeding would be breed-able deserts.
IMO if you worry about what others might do, you are going to have a rough time in this world. If you educate them about the issue, you did all you are responsible for. Most people I would have to imagine after being educated would not spend the time and money to raise an animal up just to send it to it's death.

As for keeping the numbers down, something to mention is it will always be 1/4 of a clutch, since there is no way to make a homozygous. I think it makes the project that much more interesting.