Quote:
Originally Posted by Chip
notions have become more concrete
[A]Things I've changed my mind on, and no longer believe:[/b]
3) Bloodred has a tendency to be weak genetically.
4) Inbreeding has innate negative consequences.
5) There is some, even if minor, benefit to live or pre-killed vs. frozen mice.
6) Homemade racks can be built better and cheaper than commercial racks (at least by someone with my skill set).
7) 7 to 10 days before feeding or handling a reptile is needed to let them settle in to a new enclosure.
Things I feel more strongly about:
3) Given a proper temperature to move to, they will not burn themselves, even with "too hot" of a hot spot.
4) A percentage of babies that hatch should never be bred (subjective as that statement is).
7) Cohabitation is a bad idea.
That should get the ball rolling. I suspect many of you "old-timers" will agree with some of these points and take issue with others, I'm curious as to your thoughts.
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Good thread.
From the {A} category:
3) Bloodred has a tendency to be weak genetically.
I suspect a lot of the "early bloodreds" were highly inbred, which may have led to the concept that they were "genetically weak". Nowadays, since they have been out-crossed into so many differing bloodlines, there are many available that are very un-related. So putting two together appears to result in healthier offspring. I also
suspect that when "highly un-related" bloodreds, or bloodred X het bloodred, are put together, this is what causes the "bloodred gene" to split into pied, red coating, diffusion, (***) and the base color of bloodred minus the red-coating, but still with split belly checkers. Not touching Masque. And I can't help but wonder how many other genes can be split. Time will tell.
Reduce the visual black and isolate it away from red-coating, diffusion, white belly, pied -while utilizing the dark old-school bloodreds genetics- and it could pass for strawberry.
4) Inbreeding has innate negative consequences.
A lot of breeders had problems with stargazer, but then a lot of the early SK were heavily inbred to reproduce the gene. Possibly related to the quip about bloodred being genetically inferior in the morph's early years, I am going to disagree here. But then by inbreeding I am assuming that you mean inbreeding beyond sibXsib F3.
5) There is some, even if minor, benefit to live or pre-killed vs. frozen mice.
Their nutritional value is better, no doubt about it. Vitamin supplements, wow. What a difference those make, for the better. Plus, you probably know if the food was fed corn and soy meal, or a more normal diet for a real mouse.
6. Racks.
Yup. But I live to the south of you. Snapped down clamps + specific temp controlled (entire) rooms are more cost effective then all the melamine. Just stack them up. Males on the bottom, females above. Some shelves are good for babies and juvies in smaller housing.
7) 7 to 10 days before feeding or handling a reptile is needed to let them settle in to a new enclosure.
For a baby less then a year in age which has never been force-fed AND has no feeding issues, yes.
There are many plants and animals in trade, horticulture, this thing we do, etc, which are not hardy outside of controlled&
conditioned environmental situations. Re-conditioning once they leave place A for place B. Kinda like how a lot of adult females, if shipped pre-winter/post-lay, will breed the following year, but, if they are sent from place A to place B in the spring, they may not lay fertile clutches. Just an observation, nothing truly scientific.
I find that hardy stock needs 2-5 days to settle in. Adults usually feed right out of the fedex box without incident IMHO.
From the B group:
3) Given a proper temperature to move to, they will not burn themselves, even with "too hot" of a hot spot.
With heated rooms instead of miles of fire hazardous UTH stuff and wires galore, there is no burning of snakes. A fan and a ceramic heater on a concrete pad saved me how much time and money in all that other stuff. But still not practical for a keeper of one pet. Is there something wrong or hurtful to a snake to let it experience the seasons? To slow down growth in winter, feed less, sleep/brumate we call it now/ awhile? Would allowing the snake to have more naturalistic temperature conditioning be harmful to them, or weed out the 'not as hardy as I have led myself to believe' stock?
4) A percentage of babies that hatch should never be bred (subjective as that statement is).
This sorta covers everything I've already ranted on. A portion of
nearly every clutch. Should (assumed genetically) weak hatchlings be cornsnakes forced alive? But then never bred? We have no control what happens once they leave us.
7) Cohabitation is a bad idea.
For cornsnakes, yes. Generally. There are exceptions to every rule, especially where living organisms are concerned, however, rules are not based on exceptions. And this statement just invalidated all that other dibble i posted here.
Thanks for the free candy.
Brain candy, that is.