the hardest question you'll ever answer

nuno · 10-01-02, 11:36 PM

How can you tell if a snake has been inbred?

Syst3m · 10-02-02, 12:00 AM

You can't. But it is very common from what I can see.

Big Mike · 10-02-02, 08:15 AM

If you see deformities, like a crooked back etc. then there is a good chance that's it been inbed but that's never certain...I don't think you could tell on a healthy snake.

10-02-02, 08:31 AM

you can't tell, however even in the wild most snakes have small territories shared with related snakes. You need to remember that a type of 'inbreeding' is what establishes varieties of all species. Breeding back an unusual offspring to it's parent or sibling has the best odds of producing similar unusual offspring. This is how any 'non-type' (non-normal) plants and animals are usually produced.

Linds · 10-02-02, 09:52 AM

There is no way at all of telling. I disgaree with Mike, in that defomaties are a sign of inbreeding. I have seen just as many, if not MORE deformaties come from completely unrelated LTC animals than I have from related animals...........

Big Mike · 10-02-02, 10:46 AM

Linds could be right...that's just my opinion, I'm not an expert by any means. Who knows why they develope deforaties...

Tim_Cranwill · 10-02-02, 10:48 AM

What effect would breeding siblings and their siblings have? I have 1.1 of most of my snakes and plan to keep at least 1 female from each of my first clutches. Will the father-daughter offspring be too inbred? I've always wondered this.

I'd like some advice on this because none of the books I have even talk about it.

SDSnakes · 10-02-02, 10:57 AM

Linds is completely right in my opinion.

Quervo · 10-02-02, 12:37 PM

If your snake (or whatever) is one of the spiffy new morphs .. there is a fairly good chance that it has been inbred somewhere in its lineage.
Line breeding is a relatively common practice used to prove a genetic trait. If you look at animals like dogs, you can see the results of over-inbreeding. Breeds like the dalmations, german shepards, chows all have inbreeding related problems (hearing problems, hip displacia, eye problems). Wild cheetahs are inbred out of necessity .. there isn't enough genetic diversity left in them! They are all essentially siblings .. well, genetically, they are all pretty much the same animal.
From what I can see, don't worry TOO much about inbreeding, but keep a close eye on the results, and don't continue a line that has problems (please, the hairless cat is gross enough, let's not breed a furred snake.

)

Just my rambling opinion.

Alphonzo · 10-02-02, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Big Mike
Linds could be right...that's just my opinion, I'm not an expert by any means. Who knows why they develope deforaties...

Deformaties can just be a spell of nature.
But it can also be a sign that the breedingtemperature was not the right one. Or was not right on a certain moment during the incubation.
Inbred specimen normally look the same as juveniles from unrelated parents. A problem with inbreds however can be that they do not live as long as they should or that they give smaller clutches with smaller eggs. That kind of problems is what you can expect.
o>

J.J. · 10-02-02, 07:59 PM

ask if it goes to an inbred club, hee hee, i am sooo stupid, listen to the others, not me!

lance · 10-02-02, 10:22 PM

it'll have those billybob teeth and a jug of hootch
haha just kidding

Syst3m · 10-03-02, 12:52 AM

Here is my whole take on the inbreeding thing.
While I do not see any possible way visually to determine if your animal was inbred, knowing your breeder is one good way to find out.

Inbreeding in pure bred dogs is very common unfortunatly and the results are evident. Shortened life spans, numberous health problems and in my opinion lowered intelligence.

It may not be such a bad thing to inbreed once in a line continued inbreeding will most definatly result in deformaties, shortened life spans, smaller litters, still births, poor tempers and a variety of other undesirable traits.

Now when selecting breeding partners if you must inbreed you really need to pay attention to wich snakes your going to breed together. Of course most of the same things you should look for when breeding 2 snakes of the same gene pool are still the same things you should look for when breeding unrelated pairs too.

Selecting the most healthy snakes for breeding is always the best plan. Breeding one generation back to its sire or dam may not show any problems or no problems may develop as a result.
Even if your snake was inbred there is a good chance that your snake will be heathy. In my opinion the real problem with inbreeding come into play when you breed related animals carelessly.

All of my experience with dog and cat breeding has show that direct breeding to offspring usually doesn't end up good. I've almost always seen poor litter sizes, still birth and generally poor attitudes from the animals as adults. Either they are highly agressive or very high strung. As for snakes on the other hand their personalities are not as developed as cats or dogs, so I think the largest dangers related to inbreeding snakes would be more of the health concerns. If you don't think your snake is healthy have it checked out by a vet. Otherwise if your snake exhibits typical feeding/habitat responses its probably fine.

jsnake0 · 10-03-02, 03:55 AM

i have "heard that you can breed a least 7 generations with out problems" but ????as for dogs, cats, horses, and rednecks well
now thats a different story. deformaties do come from improper
temps and humidity, and more then likely some inbreeding.
look at corns some blood corns are sterile i cant prove it but
more then likely too much inbreeding but with out inbreeding you
can't improve on what you have. and yes I am inbreed but thats
another story

you could do a DNA test but it is not cheap