Testing for Stargazing

If you want I should produce het gazers atleast. If any of my stock proves positive for gazer I can get you a pair of homos. The shipping will be on your cost though. I will keep you posted.

Although trying to test is a great idea. I have bred Homo animals to 100% Het animals with the same gene and never produced any Homo animals for that gene in the same clutch. So how are the animals deemed s/g free with the breedings?

Dave Partington says:

Joe says it's not specifically a sunkissed issue. I think that has been generally accepted. Do we need to test all of our stock? Is SG simple recessive? Can it be "bred out" or will it keep popping up here and there forever? I don't have the inclination to do that... And if we test ALL of our stock, what are we supposed to do with all of the stock that then carries the SG gene? Euth them?? There are no comfortable, easy answers here...

Originally Posted by crackerhead

Do I think testing stock for Stargazing is important, YES. Am I foolish enough to believe we have any semblance of control, NO. It is in lines other than SK. And "Big" breeders do not test. I'm referring to the breeders that sell to the big box stores that then disseminate those infected strains to the public. Who then just breeds for "fun" and further spreads the gene.
I applaud testing and eliminating SG from as much stock as is possible. The, let's say, 50 breeders that are testing and trying to produce Gazer-free stock are but a drop in the bucket when compared to all the corns produced in any given year. I produce about 1200 hatchlings a year. Add to that Walter's 1200, Joe P's and any other breeder that is testing and you haven't even made a dent in what gets sold by the "Big" breeders who aren't testing.
And some of those guys are big names in the business too. The animals are seen as a profit margin not a sentient creature. If it eats or spins makes no difference to them once it is sold. Corns have always been the poor serpent relation in the pet industry. They are easy to handle and care for and breed easily too. Any moron can put two animals together and produce more. And they do so at an alarming rate.
So we can test but it sure feels a lot like herding cats to me.

Terri

That sums it up rather nicely.

At this point there is no stopping the tide, it's drop in the bucket damage control at best. To think it can ever be fully eradicated is folly.

The Gazer horse has left the barn, bred with everything on it's cross country dash, before you could even throw a rope at it.

OK, Joe says SG is possibly in every line. For snakes bought in the US after SK was being combined with other morphs in breeding projects I'll accept that, but I will assert with 99% probability that my British bred snow, anery, amel, normal etc won't have been anywhere near anything carrying gazer, because when they were bred SK was such a sexy new morph that them being even possibly het would have put them out of the price range I could pay for my snakes when I was starting my collection. My old school bloods from Vinman have good enough provenance that I'll also lay down a totally minimal chance of them having anything in their background he doesn't know about. The upper keys, stripes, ghostblood, motley, blood that I got directly from British breeders also would have carried a premium price if they'd been part of SK morph breedings.
By starting my collection with snakes too cheap to carry any SK genes, before it would have been present in any quantity at all over here I am totally convinced my lines don't carry gazer at all.

Here is a thread with some further info on testing "other" snakes for stargazer and associated info on stargazer as well.

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84121

The het and homo gazers can be donated to others for testing. Or euthanize them. I am in need of twenty homo gazer females.

Its pretty funny seeing how many people actually think that its completely out of our control and and blaming others that its there fault, Guess what you would be on the floor regretting and weeping when gazer pops up in any of your stocks. Like really I am blown away by the people who believe its uncontrollable cause. And saying its like trying to herd cats what crazy kind of comparison is that to a recessive disease in corn snakes...

Originally Posted by Reptilekyle64

Its pretty funny seeing how many people actually think that its completely out of our control and and blaming others that its there fault, Guess what you would be on the floor regretting and weeping when gazer pops up in any of your stocks. Like really I am blown away by the people who believe its uncontrollable cause. And saying its like trying to herd cats what crazy kind of comparison is that to a recessive disease in corn snakes...

I know the person who compared controlling the gazer gene to herding cats, and I would bet my left butt cheek that she has FORGOTTEN more about genetics that you have EVER known.
Just like hybridization being a horse out of the barn and never knowing for certain if your amel is a pure corn, the gazer gene is out there and no matter what we do it is out there to stay.
Except unlike hybridization, if your snake is a gazer you know it.

Originally Posted by Reptilekyle64

Its pretty funny seeing how many people actually think that its completely out of our control and and blaming others that its there fault, Guess what you would be on the floor regretting and weeping when gazer pops up in any of your stocks. Like really I am blown away by the people who believe its uncontrollable cause. And saying its like trying to herd cats what crazy kind of comparison is that to a recessive disease in corn snakes...

Let me hear your method of control then.

How will you cleanse the entire corn population of the gazer gene, or potential to carry the gazer gene? I'm all ears.