# Inbreeding



## dcwolfe (Sep 10, 2012)

So I was looking for some forums about what are the effects of inbreeding in tortoise species and I wanted to know your guyâ€™s thoughts and opinions on the subject. I have been looking it up a little bit and from what I had seen from strictly online subjects are the fact that when tortoises or any species inbreed it causes a result of recessive jeans. Now I know in the wild when young tortoises grow past their juvenile stage they will try to mate, but I couldnâ€™t imagine that the hatchlings would travel very far from the original sight of birth, so I would think that inbreeding would happen fairly often in tortoises. The reason why the topic came up is because I have two leopard tortoises and I know they will probable be the same sex because of incubation temps, but by the off chance that they arenâ€™t will I have to worry about them inbreeding.


----------



## AustinASU (Sep 10, 2012)

I would avoid inbreeding....when given the opportunity to introduce new blood....do it. We have to think and consider always about furthering the species to the best of our ability, this should be the soul responsibility of every tortoise breeder.


----------



## ra94131 (Sep 10, 2012)

dcwolfe said:


> So I was looking for some forums about what are the effects of inbreeding in tortoise species and I wanted to know your guyâ€™s thoughts and opinions on the subject. I have been looking it up a little bit and from what I had seen from strictly online subjects are the fact that when tortoises or any species inbreed it causes a result of recessive jeans. Now I know in the wild when young tortoises grow past their juvenile stage they will try to mate, but I couldnâ€™t imagine that the hatchlings would travel very far from the original sight of birth, so I would think that inbreeding would happen fairly often in tortoises. The reason why the topic came up is because I have two leopard tortoises and I know they will probable be the same sex because of incubation temps, but by the off chance that they arenâ€™t will I have to worry about them inbreeding.



Inbreeding is extremely common in the pet trade. Most recessive mutations (morphs) out there started with a single individual that was bred to a regular animal of the same species and then the resulting offspring are inbred to try and bring back out the recessive gene.

Most of the breeders I know don't regularly report issues when this is kept reasonable, but others find it distasteful and there are some rare circumstances where the offspring suffer. (In the Carpet Python world, this is a common discussion around the "Jaguar" morph that has been reported to cause neurological issues. This is not explicitly an inbreeding issue though.)

I personally would not breed most animals commonly kept as pets, so my opinion is pretty irrelevant. The supply/demand balance of the exotic pet world is off balance enough as it is. For me, irresponsible mass breeding is a bigger issue than inbreeding by a long shot.

But back to your point, unless you are actually wanting to care for offspring you probably should avoid a situation where your animals breed. If you do allow them to breed, I don't think a single generation of inbreeding is going to be a very big issue. (Some might look down on it, but in my opinion that is mostly a projection of human morals on animals.)


----------



## N2TORTS (Sep 10, 2012)

Inbreeding is extremely common in the pet trade. Most recessive mutations (morphs) out there started with a single individual that was bred to a regular animal of the same species and then the resulting offspring are inbred to try and bring back out the recessive gene.

Most of the breeders I know don't regularly report issues when this is kept reasonable, but others find it distasteful and there are some rare circumstances where the offspring suffer. (In the Carpet Python world, this is a common discussion around the "Jaguar" morph that has been reported to cause neurological issues. This is not explicitly an inbreeding issue though.)

I personally would not breed most animals commonly kept as pets, so my opinion is pretty irrelevant. The supply/demand balance of the exotic pet world is off balance enough as it is. For me, irresponsible mass breeding is a bigger issue than inbreeding by a long shot.

But back to your point, unless you are actually wanting to care for offspring you probably should avoid a situation where your animals breed. If you do allow them to breed, I don't think a single generation of inbreeding is going to be a very big issue. (Some might look down on it, but in my opinion that is mostly a projection of human morals on animals.)
[/quote]

VERY WELL SAID !


----------



## dcwolfe (Sep 10, 2012)

AustinASU said:


> I would avoid inbreeding....when given the opportunity to introduce new blood....do it. We have to think and consider always about furthering the species to the best of our ability, this should be the soul responsibility of every tortoise breeder.



I agree with you a 100 percent. Iâ€™m not a breeder nor would I ever inbreed a species, I just wanted to know what the facts were out there or anyone has had any first hand experience with it.


Inbreeding is extremely common in the pet trade. Most recessive mutations (morphs) out there started with a single individual that was bred to a regular animal of the same species and then the resulting offspring are inbred to try and bring back out the recessive gene.

Most of the breeders I know don't regularly report issues when this is kept reasonable, but others find it distasteful and there are some rare circumstances where the offspring suffer. (In the Carpet Python world, this is a common discussion around the "Jaguar" morph that has been reported to cause neurological issues. This is not explicitly an inbreeding issue though.)

I personally would not breed most animals commonly kept as pets, so my opinion is pretty irrelevant. The supply/demand balance of the exotic pet world is off balance enough as it is. For me, irresponsible mass breeding is a bigger issue than inbreeding by a long shot.

But back to your point, unless you are actually wanting to care for offspring you probably should avoid a situation where your animals breed. If you do allow them to breed, I don't think a single generation of inbreeding is going to be a very big issue. (Some might look down on it, but in my opinion that is mostly a projection of human morals on animals.)
[/quote]

Excellent!!


----------



## ALDABRAMAN (Sep 11, 2012)

*'N2TORTS' *


*VERY WELL SAID *!


----------

