imbreeding chameleons....

[wonder_chunky]

hi,
i have a question.....is it safe to breed two chameleons (veileds) together if they are brother and sister? it does seem wrong morally but can it really affect the babies or will they not be interested in each other even if they havent seen eachother since thier birth?what about in the wild, how would a cham know that their mate-to-be isnt their sister or something?
i know people imbreed leopard gecko's to get certain morphs or patterns on them, and they dont seem to have any problems with them. so if anybody knows anything about this i'd appreciate their input.

Thanks
Ryan

[snakedude_03]

hey ryan.. it's inbreeding..

[reptilerob]

I could type forever and give you about 20 things why on this but if you inbred CHAM., the baby are very weak and will not live more then about 6 to 8 months so if you breed them and sell the baby your hurting yourself in the long run.

THANK YOU
Rob


Oh yeah hi I am new here

[wonder_chunky]

i figured that would be what happened but i thought i'd just make sure.

[patricia]

For differing viewpoints on inbreeding, check out the thread "Pro & Cons of Inbreeding" in the Elaphe guttata guttata forum.

You'll always get "words of wisdom" from those that are virulently opposed to inbreeding under any circumstances, and they'll assure you that nothing but bad can result from it. Sometimes, you need to just take the words of the doomsayers with a grain of salt. Do it once, and see what happens. If the parent stock are both healthy, and are free of fatal genetic recessives, then their progeny will also be healthy.

The great thing about captive breeding, is that you control the pairings, so you can breed out unwanted recessives, if that is your goal.