I’m still growing my collection and am new to the breeding world, so bear with me here. I’ve been doing a lot of research on different morphs to get myself comfortable with IDs. I’ve read and/or heard a few breeders talking about how certain morphs are more prone to certain behaviors.
I have no idea how scientifically based or observed this is, or if it’s just rumors and assumptions, but I was wondering if any of y’all have experience with this kind of thing - animals from a particular morph being more likely to have certain behavior traits. For instance, I’ve heard that Mojaves tend to be great eaters and easy to start as hatchlings.
Once again, I have no idea how accurate all this is. Just wondering if anyone has observed anything like this with any certain morphs. This question is purely for my own curiosity.
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It not accurate , it is pretty much that breeders experience and does not hold true half the time across the board. So just because one breeders has mojave’s that are great eaters and has never had an issue doesn’t mean that everyone has the same experince.
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Ill tell you my mojave is my worst feeder so it depends on the animal
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Think if them like dog breeds, without the emotional range, there can be commonalities, but each snake is still an individual. They acquire different learned behaviors based on different experiences and different reactions to stimuli.
Other than, albinos are more sensitive to light, you can write off most others as anecdotal. My experience has been piebalds are slow growing picky eaters, however, I have freinds who have ravenous glutons.
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Exactly I have some of those gluttons that get to 4000 grams.
I think it’s not about the paint job but more of selective breeding and holding back, based on what I witnessed in my collection the majority of animals I have held back based on some of my founders characteristics such as feeding pattern and or size have developed the same characteristics. But it does not mean it happens all the time either.
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I don’t think this is a great comparison, because dog breeds haven’t been bred just for their appearance, but a set of traits that include behavior. An albino ball python is an allele of a specific gene, a German Short Hair pointer has been bred for generations for not only it’s distinctive appearance, but also unique ability to track and “point” at birds. With dog breeds we’re likely dealing with thousands of genes and epigenetic marks that influence every aspect of that dog’s existence (which is also why the “it’s all in how you raise them” attitude to dog behavior is BS). While it’s possible that the single mutation/genetic alteration that leads to pigmentation and patterning changes in ball pythons will affect other biological processes (such as the neurological defects seen in spiders), it’s much less likely. We would need a full transcriptomic analysis to pinpoint what other pathways may be affected
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Just to be clear, you are claiming that with any given breed its behaviour, in any given situation, is predetermined solely on its genetics?
Putting aside a couple of your comments, you just reinforced my point. We have been selectively breeding them for thousands of years to perpetuate ideal characteristics such as color, size, temperment, and behavior. As you point out this encompasses a wide number of genes besides just those that affect color or pattern. I guarantee, using your example, I can take 10 different German Short hair pointers from 10 different breeders and they will all show different temperaments and reactions to the same stimuli. That is why breed standards are not strictly defined, there is a range that is considered acceptable for every breed for size, color (to a lesser degree), and behaviour. Even after hundreds to thousands of years of selective breeding no breeder can guarantee that they won’t ever produce an agressive or timid dog.
So simply manipulating a small number of genes, in the case of ball pythons, is unlikely to produce static behavior traits with such a limited scope of manipulation, when long term large scale manipulation still produces aberrations in behavior. That is even assuming the ridiculous notion that behavior is a strict 1:1 with genetics.
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Let’s keep on topic it’s not a dog breeding forum
Thanks
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Not to get into the dog feeding further, which you are incorrect about, I was just pointing out that comparing dog breeding to pythons is not the same thing at all. You can’t make assumptions about a snake;s behavior based on morph because we’re not just breeding albinos back to albinos only for generations, but outcrossing with other morphs. The only thing an albino from the east cost is likely to share with an albino from the west coast is that they will both look albino and have the albino mutation. As recent studies have shown 60-70% percent of a dog’s behavior is based on genetics, if you take a GSP from the west coast and the east coast, they should have a very similar temperament and behavior.
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I didn’t feel like it was likely to be accurate with a morph across the board, which is why I kind of questioned it. I could definitely see how lines within a breeder’s collection may be more prone to certain characteristics though due to selective breeding within that collections. Thank y’all for the insight.
Hello everyone
I recently picked up a spark/yellowbelly female hatchling and man alive she hates everything, the meanest little worm I have seen so far. She strikes everything even the tv remote that was on the desk I set her on it wasn’t even moving lol. Anyways I mentioned this to my local reptile shop and they asked the genetics so I told them and they was like O YEA those are always mean " GOOD LUCK WITH THAT ONE" so my question’s are 1. is there statement true that some gene combo’s are just aggressive by nature and 2. how should i go about trying to tame her when all she does is strike strike strike even the hand that’s holding her lol she literally launches her whole body off the surface she is on to try and get you. Thanks for any and all reply’s.
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No, there is no truth to this. For every “aggressive” example of a given morph I can show you an example of the same morph that is puppy docile.
(also, note that these animals are not acting ‘aggressive’ they are acting ‘defensive’. Something is causing it stress and it feels the need to defend itself. Sometimes this is just “tiny baby, big world” syndrome and they grow out of it as they age but sometimes it is just part of a given animal’s nature)
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The first thing I advocate it letting the animal settle in and leaving it alone for a while so it can get accustomed to the new environment. Make sure it has a hide and can feel secure. After it has fed a couple times (only try once a week at most and do not chase the animal with the prey item if it does not want to eat right away) then you can start with short periods of handling. If the defensive behaviour remains then you can start looking at broader reasons behind the action
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