Quote Originally Posted by Jahbeard
Right now I have a momma, two daughters, and a son, all breeding size. I was planning to breed the son back to mom this season, and use the girls for my hets. Any positions on breeding siblings? I thought that was a little too close, even for snake genetics.
This was in another thread: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=54282

The gist of my post/book was that sibling to sibling breeding is actually less risky (in terms of passing genetic defects) than sibling to parent. You don't often see the breeding of siblings because males sexually mature so much earlier than females (so male sibling to dame is more commonly exercised).

Personally, I'm not fond of parent/sibling breeding unless it's absolutely necessary. While genetic defects in reptiles seems relatively low, we take serious chances by constantly inbreeding. When it comes to "randomly" finding a genetic trait, the odds are pretty much equal that you'll find a piebald as you will genetic respiratory illness.

If you are bringing in a WC animal that you want to test, I can see the benefits of that. But if you are talking about a group of CBs, the risk doesn't seem worth the reward.