Just wondering why everybody stopped working with scaleless?
I remember everyone being excited about them, then seems like suddenly they’re nowhere to be seen?
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What species are you talking about? There are several species that have a scaleless morph.
People produce scaleless rat/corn snakes all the time, they’re still quite popular. Scaleless rat/corns are perfectly healthy and live normal lives. They still have their belly scutes, so they still have some level of protection for their skin on their bellies and they move, eat, shed, etc. like a normal scaled snake. There was a thread fairly recently about someone who produced scaleless California king snakes, and they seem similar to the rat/corns from what I saw, in that they still had belly scutes and their lives and care were virtually identical to their siblings with scales.
However, there are some species where the scaleless morph is a bit more controversial, mainly ball pythons and bearded dragons. For ball pythons, the issue is that they’re totally scaleless, so they lack belly scutes, unlike the scaleless colubrids discussed above. This means their bellies have no protection as they crawl and climb around, and they seem much more prone to having issues with their skin and with shedding. They require more specialized care, and some people have questions about their overall quality of life. I know there have also been some questions about the fertility of scaleless ball pythons, especially the females. As far as I know/have heard, no scaleless female ball python has ever laid a fertile clutch of eggs (though someone please correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not super wired into the ball python breeding world).
Scaleless bearded dragons (called “silkies” or “silk back”) are also totally scaleless, so have no protection for their skin on their bellies and feet. Additionally, they have no skin protection for the high basking temperatures and high level of UVB that beardies require. They tend to have a lot of issues shedding, which is compounded by the arid husbandry requirements for the species. They seem prone to skin issues in general. Most people in the reptile community seem to agree that silkies require very specialized care, are very high-maintenance, and don’t have a great quality of life even when they receive the best of care. Most bearded dragon breeders seem to make a conscious effort to not produce silkies.
There are probably other species where scaleless individuals have been produced, but I feel like these are the most common scaleless species in the hobby, so I’m guessing you’re asking about one of these species.
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I’m mostly a corn snake guy, and they’re still very big in that niche of hobby.
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@russ Hi Russ!
I am friends with a gentleman who made some spectacular scaleless Okeetees this year. In fact he gave me one! 
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I was going to say the same, I really like the idea of Scaleless colubrids, at least for the ones that have no health issues. But I wonder if they have any issues hatching? Like does their Scaleless body affect whether or not they have an egg tooth?
Scaleless Rat/Corn snakes are probably the most popular known, and the idea of Scaleless Kingsnakes are really cool too.
Scaleless Ball Pythons are not popular because of the health reasons @jawramik listed. I personally wanted a few until I found out that they dont have belly scutes and the females don’t lay fertile clutches. As for the males I’m unsure if they are able to produce with scaled females or not… and the babies that come scaleless have issues hatching due to most commonly lacking an egg tooth all together.
Silkie Beardies have the same issue Scaleless BPs do, and Imho they look physically unappealing compared to other Beardies.
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I think scaleless colubrids do usually have an egg tooth. I seem to recall seeing a video (possibly from Snake Discovery?) that actually showed the egg tooth on a freshly hatched scaleless rat/corn baby. I also haven’t heard about any issues with scaleless clutches dying in the egg if a human doesn’t cut the eggs in time, but maybe some of our corn breeders who have worked with scaleless can chime in with more authority on the subject.
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I don’t remember Jamin ever mentioning any difficulties with hatching scaleless…….at least he didn’t with my girl……
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I’ve heard a lot of people say that, but I honestly think silkies are pretty cute (at least when they’re in reasonably good health and aren’t covered in scabs). They look weird for sure, but I like them in much the same way I like animals like hairless cats or hairless rats. They’re sort of endearingly bizarre, like adorable little aliens. 
That said, I’d never buy a silky and I don’t support them being produced. Me thinking they’re cute is not a good enough reason for an animal with no quality of life to be brought into the world.
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The gene seemed really popular once it first happened because they were so unique looking. But there are far to many issues with them to make people want to work with them. And that’s before even getting to the part about the fertility being questioned.
A scaleless BPs is much harder to work with than a ‘normal’ one. It’s extra work that breeders don’t want and that pet owners generally may not be able to handle.
Scaleless BPs don’t have belly scales like the colubrid species do. There’s a concern that because of this they can’t even develop an egg tooth and may potentially drown in the egg if not cut in time. And only having proof of one on eggs in over 4 years is pretty telling that there’s an issue with breeding a female scaleless.
As far as the beardies go… Silkbacks get shredded when you breed them or when kept around other beardies. Like BPs they’re going to have issues shedding and they are very prone to skin infections because of it. I don’t know if they have same fertility concerns BPs do.
Colubrids do well because they still have the ability to grow scales on the belly and locomotion and shedding is much easier because of it. They also can produce the egg tooth and seem to do well enough with the production of keratins that producing eggs is not much of an issue.
@jawramik For BPs there’s only one that people have seen. She laid a clutch of I think 5 ‘good’ eggs and a slug, and then 3 eggs failed to incubate. This has only been in the last couple of months iirc.
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen a healthy photo of a Silkie Beardie unfortunately 
the most I’ve seen look to be dehydrated or have some kind of skin issue… I’ll have to look up more photos of them lol
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Hi @jawramik,
Thank you for such a great response, whilst I personally have more interest with Royals over Corns, I was asking in general so you more than covered my question 
I do recall where I am, there being more interest in scaleless corns though to be fair.
Thanks to all who contributed answers also. 
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I’ll just toss in this little bit of info: MorphMarket doesn’t even allow the sale of Silkback beardies due to the issues associated with them.
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