Pairing up siblings

[boris.2010]

Just want to know what your thoughts are on pairing up siblings......so many people sell them as pairs.

Want to know if it happens much and what are the consequences with Pythons?

I know it is done when trying for morphs and have done it myself with parrots but only with father and daughter.

 

[wranga]

theres no problem in doing it

 

[Bez84]

Doesnt seem to present the same problems in reptiles as it does with mammals....

 

[SnakeyTroy]

Time will tell.....

 

[GeckPhotographer]

All pairing up siblings or parent-child really does is increases the chance that if a defective gene is present it will be expressed.

If it is a strong line no problem should occur. However many would advise not to back breed or sibling pair to many generations in a row.

 

[boris.2010]

thanks for the replies

 

[pyrodarknessanny]

inbreeding (sibling pairs) and line breeding (offspring to parent) are both efective methods when breeding for certant traits eg, a resecesive genetic morph , like albinoisum and so on,

its kind of pointless thou if the paring has no obvious genetic benifit , like pariing up sibling HETs for what ever trait, but saying that providing the animals are strong and healthy there is realy nothing wrong with such pairings ,

 

[benjamind2010]

As SnakeyTroy said...time will tell...maybe in 200 years we could see any possible negative effects of reptile inbreeding...by which time it would likely be a little too late...

That's why I'd suggest to get clean blood in your lines every few generations or so, to keep any potential black swans from turning up in herpetoculture at some point in the unbeknown future.