Ethics question in relationship to breeding.

[Dianne]

Interesting question and I’ve enjoyed reading the answers. I picked ‘other’ for a couple of reasons. First, to answer your intended question about quality of life, and second to share my experience with breeding boas and corns.

Quality of life I think would depend on the species and the amount of drive demonstrated. You would have to determine if allowing to breed would really settle the animal, and if so, is it something you would potentially allow annually to keep temperment mild. As mentioned by others, there is the strain on the female and the likelihood of complications. I’ve never kept a species that did damage to itself from a mating drive. If I truly believed it would better the life of the adult to allow breeding, then I can see the argument to allow breeding and freeze the resulting eggs. That said, I would not breed a live bearing animal in the same situation, the difference between unformed egg and fully formed live young is distinct for me.

Second, I’ve bred redtail boas, Cuban boas, and corn snakes. Part of it at first was I wanted the experience and part was I had some really beautiful redtail boas. I had 18 perfect healthy babies in the first litter, and a little less than that with a couple of slugs in the second litter. The Cubans were unusual and have small litters (3 healthy babies, no slugs), to this day I regret selling them even though life dictated the need to do so. The first time with the corn snakes were also for the experience as I had a beautiful pair of snow corns. The second time with the corns was a whoops...my hypo and normal were both supposed to be female and I temporarily housed them together at Mom’s when I was moving. The normal was not a female. My hypo also taught me that snakes can retain sperm for more than a year of seperation, giving me 3 viable eggs and several slugs as a surprise under her water dish.

Fast forward to my current collection and I have several bp’s that would make nice pairings. I’ll probably never breed them, but if I do it will most likely be the bananas...a super banana would be pretty cool...or my pied. For either I am several years away as most of the ones I would consider breeding are yearlings or less. And I pretty much know that if I breed them and get a clutch of beautiful banana or pied babies, I’m going to need more cages.

Forgot to add, the females seemed much less impressed than the males and I was lucky not to have any egg binding issues with the corns or complications from the slugs with my boas. I also bred at a time when the market wasn’t quite as saturated with certain species, making it easier to find homes...about 16 years ago, give or take.