inbreeding

[rickmoss95]

when i bred snakes(any species)...if i had two totally unrelated animals and bred them togeather; i would either breed the babies to each other or back to a parent...(not always, but if i was trying to enhance a specific trait). then i would outcross my bloodlines. my question is can you do this with leopard geckos or should you absolutely avoid any type of line breeding at all. and if this is the case, what about breeding half sibs(animals with one shared parent)? thanks

 

[Taquiq]

You can breed leos that are related but you should try to outcross by the third generation.

 

[rickmoss95]

i kinda figured, but i read somewhere esle on this forum that you should not breed sibs togeather and i just wondered why...i could have misread this, i dont know. thanks for your reply.

 

[ElapidSVT]

too much inbreeding increases the frequency of deleterious alleles

 

[rickmoss95]

i will just use my same rule as i did with my snakes...i figured it had to be the same for most reptiles.