Quote Originally Posted by paulh View Post
Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Snakes have around twenty thousand to twenty-five thousand gene pairs. A few of those gene pairs have slightly defective genes. If you start with a stock with one known somewhat defective but otherwise desirable gene and inbreed, the combination of your known gene and less good genes in other gene pairs are easier to identify and remove from the potential breeding stock. Hopefully, the better genes in other gene pairs will counteract some of the bad effects of the known defective gene. In this case, outbreeding will not improve the stock.

On the other hand, the stock may have been inbred without any concern for health and vigor. Poorer genes may have accumulated to the point where the stock is in danger of dying out. At this point, outbreeding may be the only way to save the stock.
that’s 1 thing i’ve noticed with BPs is there an exceptional amount of morphs with associated/known medical issues - was wondering about this because i really love the way caramels look and would want to breed them with my wild one but there’s so many healthy issues associated with it idk