Called a breeder and .... (jaw dropped)

[Neill]

He was telling me its very common practice to inbreed brother sister from same clutch. He told me its how you get brighter and brighter color/patterns you desire. He told me it isn't harmful and you can even do daughter son to parent. I cant comprehend this!?!? Is it really fine to do this activity? I know this could also be posted under ethics but figured its a breeding question. I would like to breed nifty color combos, but theirs no way i could cull an animal that comes out deformed. Let alone have a chance of becoming deformed from breeding. I also heard enigmas are most often neurologically challenged. The breeder says he doesn't deal with enigmas because they basically are "the inbreeds" of geckos. Tell me what you think of this. I really wanted one of those white leopard geckos that stays white. I think a super snow, or maybe a blizzard white with black spots, that stays white with black spots at old age. But after hearing this i cant decide if i should even buy one.

 

[Lena]

It really doesn't increase the chance of deformities that much. Inbreeding is and has been employed in selective breeding to bring out certain traits. It's the fastest way to breed for a trait that you really want.

How do you think we have such a variety of sizes and shapes in dogs?

 

[OhioGecko]

This is called linebreeding. It is a common practice for the reasons the breeder explained to you. The rule of thumb is not to linebreed for more than 3 generations without bringing in some new blood.

 

[LizMarie]

From what I've read this is a common practice in breeding reptiles. When breeding you can have various deformities due to many different issues even if you have everything right but I doubt inbreeding has much to do with it.

I'm surprised you havn't read about it on the forum or in that chat if you've ever been in there. Enigmas have been said to have some issues but I've heard it was a very small percentage compared to all the Enigmas that are out there.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I would not breed siblings. Each sibling has one copy of each parental genetics, anda for me it's too risky. I do know that it is common practice with many breeders to cross siblings, and in many cases it is necessary to develop the new morphs quickly.

 

[acpart]

I don't know enough about this to do any more than just bring it up, but I believe that the amount of inbreeding that's "safe" relates to the complexity of the organism. So I can inbreed (I mean, how would you stop them) my mealworms and fish to a much larger extent than I can inbreed my leos, and those can inbreed to a greater extent than is safe for humans.

Aliza

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Aliza is right... the lower the life-form, the less complex the genetic make-up is, so there would be less chance of problems due to inbreeding.

 

[bohannbj]

Inbreeding does not cause defects, it only intesifies genetics. This is to say that if two perfect organisms were to breed, they would produce a perfect offspring, barring the miniscule chance of a spontaneous mutation. Without this principle, new species would never be to reach a noticable size before mutations changed them. The only problem with this is that once a spontaneous mutation occurs, curly or kinked tail, line breeding will increase the prevalence of the trait within the population. The reason we don't worry about in-breeding lower organisms is because we ask them to look pretty or taste good, not do math. Most of the serious detremental mutations humans think of affect intelligence, or things we can't see without a microscope. Chances are the reason a lot of geckos became susceptable to crypto and other infections was due to a genetic ailment that afffected their immune systems. Just a couple of outcrossings later and I almost never hear of that anymore. I have yet to line breed simply because I keep upgrading males (thanks Paul for the great Secret Santa gift). I would imagine that most of the geckos in the wild would look at ours and say, ", Goodness gracious your dumb and ugly, how are you not dead yet."

 

[Retribution Reptiles]

So Marcia if i breed my amoeba to isn't separated half i wouldn't have to worry about there being like some weird glob coming out of it's side?

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

So Marcia if i breed my amoeba to isn't separated half i wouldn't have to worry about there being like some weird glob coming out of it's side?

LOL!!! Since I know of humans that are not as advanced as amoebas, it might be a concern.

 

[Nigel4less]

LOL!!! Since I know of humans that are not as advanced as amoebas, it might be a concern.

I believe thats how I was formed. :main_yes: