Wobble Gene

[Ransack]

This is why you will never see a spider gene in my collection. I can't see wanting to produce something knowing I'm rolling the dice on neurological issues. I'm not a big fan of the spider combos either. The only ones I like are the Pastel Sugar Spiders with the high white pixelated sides.

So you are not going to breed your Mimosa?

[Daigga]

I was aware of the wobble when I went purchased Giovanni (my lesser bee). I wasn't totally clear on what morphs I was going to have at first, and the thought of a neurological tick didn't exactly put spiders high on my list, but as soon as I saw him up on an auction site I absolutely had to have him. When I first took him out of his bag, he almost corkscrewed right out of my grip. His wobble is certainly very pronounced (I have a video of him wobbling around while being handled, I'll upload it some time maybe). He always has pretty long tongue flicks, and he'll wobble regardless of whether I'm handling him or if he's just hanging out in his tub, so I don't really think it's because I'm stressing him out; that's just the way he is.

Does it bother me? No, not really.

He's a lovely snake. He locked up just fine with my big girl (made me laugh every time I would peek open the tub to check on him. He would roll his head back and look at me like he wanted a fist bump or something.) and is a very enthusiastic eater, so I can't say that even his severe wobble has much of an effect on his quality of life. If he doesn't seem to mind it, then neither do I.

[BPSnakeLady]

He would roll his head back and look at me like he wanted a fist bump or something.

This made me giggle, I can picture it. The more I read about the spider wobble, the more I want to add one to my collection.

[BrianDallek]

So you are not going to breed your Mimosa?

The Mimosa was a birthday gift for my wife... it is her favorite drink and she thought he looked cute. He shows no sign of wobble nor has any champagne that I've seen in person. My plan has been to pick up a different male ghost for my black pewter ghost female in a year or so, but your right I have toyed with the idea of using him. It is my belief that champagnes are considerably less likely to have wobble than spiders, but that could be wrong. I will say that if I did use him and offspring had wobbles I would never breed him again. Some people continue to breed spiders even after seeing their offspring have bad wobbles.

[Sonny1318]

I believe some womas also have a wobble issue.

[bad-one]

I currently have a spider, albino spider and champagne. The spider and champagne usually show a head tilt and/or wobble during feeding. The albino spider is a corkscrewing mess but eats and is growing great

[alucard0822]

Got my first spyder gene recently, a subadult Enchi Bee, so far you have to really look hard to see a slight tilt or wobble when handling or feeding, otherwise she is steady, so must be lucky, even more lucky that she is so beautiful, gentle, and easy to feed and care for. I've been working with other reptiles for the past decade or so, and they don't have half of the morphs over twice the timespan of Ball Pythons. The last BP I had was a sickly captive hatched normal about 15 years ago, at that time about the only morph you saw regularly were Albinos. We're still in the early days of morphs, and a boom in reptiles generally, most weren't around a mere 10 or 15 years ago, compared to centuries old dog breeds. Maybe one day there will be a spyder line that doesn't wobble, carmel Albinos that don't kink, and Desert clutches that hatch, but not yet. For now breeders are jumping into the gold rush, and building a huge foundation of morphs for the bright future of the hobby, there are bound to be some unintended consequences along the way, as long as the animal's quality of life doesn't suffer, and with wobbles it doesn't appear to, then I don't have a problem with it.

[h00blah]

Some people continue to breed spiders even after seeing their offspring have bad wobbles.

This is because the degree in which the spider wobbles is completely random. Wobble-less spiders can produce trainwrecks, and trainwrecks can produce wobble-less spiders.

The same goes for your champagnes and womas, though I have never seen a trainwreck version of either.

Again, it comes down to preference really. I'm in the opinion that if it does not affect the quality of life or life span, then it's okay. I also enjoy taking pictures of my snakes, and I'm not a fan of the kinked look lol. I don't mind that some super-black-pastels/cinnys have duckbills, because it doesn't appear to stop them from eating or drinking like a regular ball python. If anything, it's kindof cute looking.

Super lessers/butters have bulgy eyes. Doesn't seem to affect them really. Also, my granite line seems to have a smaller than usual head, yet my female is also one of my best feeders .

Not trying to be redundant here, but I figure listing multiple examples might help get my point across. But I digress. Agree to disagree ! Good luck with your champ!

[Viol8r]

I have an 1100g male Bumblebee that reminds me of snoopy when he acts like he's a WWI fighter pilot doing barrel rolls. He's very entertaining, and most family/friends are willing to come closer to him than the ones that lay there and stare at you. With as crazy of a corkscrew ride he thinks he is on, he seems to lose it when it's feeding time. He has a lot of focus for food. My wife loves the wobble and wants more like him. We have 3 Bumblebees. Our large female is currently breeding with a Black Pastel Kingpin. I'm sure my lovely wife will want to keep all the babies...

[PeterPieBaldPython]

It's worth it to note that the very first snake retrieved from the wild as an adult had a wobble, but that didn't meaningfully impact his ability to hunt and feed for himself or otherwise function as a normal snake until humans intervened. When I first heard about the wobble and found some videos on line, I thought I would be turned off by it, but turns out I just love the morph and its combos way too much.

That said, when I get into breeding, I am going to be VERY selective about which snakes I purchase, hold back, and pair up. To my knowledge everyone has just accepted it as 'a thing' and no one has attemted to see if careful line breeding could reduce or eliminate the effect. I want f it's possible to produce snakes with little to no wobble. Who knows, maybe I'll be the first to produce a low to wobbless line

There are known neurological effects in other species with 'spider' patterns - sometimes genes have multiple functions in development of an organism - it may not be possible to uncouple 'spider' with 'wobble'. (completely worth trying if you love spiders, though! )