I have a couple of questions. The
first is, how do you as keepers typically maintain genetic diversity
in your collection of snakes (assuming that you breed them) or do you
pay attention to it at all? I know inbreeding happens in order to
prove out a new morph, for example breeding an unusual looking baby
back to its parent. Now, if your maintaining a small colony and
holding back a few babies as future breeders in an effort to save
money on new breeders, or if the baby has a gene that's expensive to
acquire by buying a new snake, at some point a lot of the snakes in
your collection will be related to each other. How does this impact
the snakes, or is there any measurable difference in the health of
closely related captive snakes vs their wild brothers and sisters?


My second question is this; I have seen
people on this site mention receiving papers with a newly purchased
snake. What do these papers consist of, a pedigree as well as a
feeding chart? How do you guys keep track of the lineage of the
snakes you breed and sell? Or do you keep track of this at all?