Quote Originally Posted by zach_24_90 View Post
Haha right? If it eats what does it matter? They aren't in the wild in Africa... They are in a tub in a rack. It gets hand fed it doesn't have to fight for survival.
I do get that, it's not like it's going to compromise it's ability to survive in captivity, but I do believe they rely on their pits as a very important way in which they perceive the world. It's not usually a respectable practice to breed other types of animal with known problems (deaf, blind etc), even if they do just fine in captivity. I suppose it's more of a moral issue than anything else, but one that should probably be addressed. I don't know where I stand on it, both because I haven't really given it a lot of thought, and also I am not really sure how the lack of actual pits changes the way the perceive things, or if it really has an impact, but given the pin-hole camera analogy, I would assume it does. I know many snakes do not have IR sensing pits, but those that do have evolved to come to rely on them. Not all mammals have colour vision but I certainly wouldn't want to give mine up.

Again, I'm not saying I have an issue with it, but to just say "If it eats what does it matter?" seems rather dismissive, is all.