How to feel about the ethics of the spider wobble?

[Cargorabbit]

I know there's like a million spider wobble threads out there though I guess I have some questions about how to feel about the ethics of it.

I have a very sweet male hypo butter bee who I'm wanting to eventually breed to my two females (hypo super mojave and a butter), he hasn't displayed any wobbling as far as I've noticed but I know that doesn't matter as it's more tied in with the gene and not always the severity of the parent.

Regardless of who I breed him with he'd still have the chance of producing a morph with a spider gene, thus the chance of any level of wobble.

I got into a discussion with someone today over whether it was ethical or not to breed him knowing that there was still that chance at the neurological defect - which they feel it's irresponsible to breed any spider-gened BPs because of this risk.

I've heard that it doesn't hurt the snake, and that they can still live completely fine with it (though I don't know if this is true for a high severity of wobble), but at the same time I almost feel guilty about it. ):

I'm not sure how I should feel on the matter. How do you guys see it? Do you still support the breeding of spider-gened BPs, do you avoid it?

[Albert Clark]

Regardless of how others feel about it you will have to grapple with it in your own mind. You are the one raising these reptiles and you should weigh it in your own way and decide if you will proceed or not on the breeding level. The controversy will remain either way. No one should sway you in your decision if you plan to go forward on the same token you should not let any one tell you it's ok if you don't think it is. Just my .02 cents. Good luck whichever way you decide to go.

[SamO]

Yes, I support breeding spiders. I don't see anything wrong with it. Maybe because the spiders I have seem to do fine, and I've never seen the train wrecks. While genetics got me into ball pythons it was two pastel spiders who stole my heart and took a passion to another level. One we call Miss Lightning, the other officially B2, but often we just call her "Wonky". Can't imagine my collection, without those incredible individuals. And the picture is Logan, Miss Lightning's daughter, the day of her birth.

[wolfy-hound]

I see nothing wrong with breeding spiders. The vast majority of them feed and grow and live quite well. I don't know of anyone who has needed to euthanize a spider for spinning, in fact. I'm not saying that those don't exist, I just don't know of any.

It's always up to you. I find that people who are against something, are going to be against it, no matter what fact or argument you bring to bear.

[CantHelpIt]

I have no problem with spiders, my mojave spider only ever has wobble when he smells a rat and even then it only takes him an extra strike to hit the rat.
My boys never wobbled when held, but that may not be the case for all spiders so as long as you understand this and are willing to work with snakes that may have more severe wobble then go for it, they look great!
It almost gives them a bit more personality than my other pet rocks

[StupidZombie]

My Mojave spider het hypo has a very severe wobble. He corkscrews holds his head weird and sleeps to where he looks dead due to the position.

He misses his strike multiple times when it comes to feeding but he gets it and eats like a pig.

Will i breed him? Yeah. I love spuders and the combos you can create. He's already planned to be paired with my yb het hypo and my calico blast once they're all big enough.

I think they're beautiful regardless. And his wobble is severe, but hes so freaking cute i wouldny trade him even for a higher end morph.


Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[Yodawagon]

I won't have any part in it, personally. I view it the same way as breeding a dog with bad hips.

[Kokorobosoi]

My personal feeling is this: Would I breed a spider? Yes. Would I sell a snake that had a wobble? No. So for me, I would only breed a spider when and if I had the means to keep any offspring it produced that had an issue.

[MarkS]

I've bred spiders in the past and while my breeders had very little wobble, some of the offspring were severe. Severe enough that it made me sad and I made the decision to get rid of them and other morphs that have a history of neurological issues. This was a personal choice and not one that I'd expect other people to follow. I just figure that there are plenty of other morphs to work with that don't have these kinds of issues.

[Cydonia]

It's like breeding bulldogs and pugs. Your'e breeding something with a horrid deformity that can impact it's ability to live BECAUSE ITS PRETTY. That's the only reason. You value whats pretty over the overall welfare of an animal, simply because you like the color. Never mind your'e creating animals that cannot raise their heads without shaking, it's only because you think it's alright to create disabled animals because the color is nice.
You don't show ball pythons, you don't use them as working animals. You just want to be selfish and create animals with poor quality of lives because you said so. There's never going to be a good reason to do it.