Mokele

A few things:

First, you should note that if you're starting with two albinos, there's already likely been some inbreeding depression, and which genes are fixed for what will be different compared to say, albino corns or piebald balls. So while your results will be applicable to the specific issue of eye problems in boids, it likely won't be generalizable well to other species and other issues.

Secondly, and pursuant to the above, there have already been numerous inbreeding experiments done in many species, the results of which can be found in the scientific literature. We've got quite a good handle on what inbreeding does in general, so if that's what you're after, I can send you the PDFs of some articles and save a lot of time and trouble.

Thirdly, these problems, being developmental, likely won't adhere to simple one-gene or two-gene mendelian models, so sorting out the heredity may be anything from difficult to impossible, especially with the complicating factor of environmental influences such as temperature (with the double-whammy of being inside a snake whose behavior you cannot absolutely control as compared to eggs, whose temperature conditions can be monitored and modified more easily). A large number of genes are involved in proper eye formation, and sorting out which and how many have been compromised from a limited number of offspring is going to be very difficult (this is why most genetics experiments involve high-reproduction species like fruit flies or plants).

Fourth, unless you up your sample size, you're going to run into the issue of psuedoreplication adversely affecting sample size. Repeated measures (clutches) can help alleviate this, but not entirely; a starting group of 6-10 would be more productive and less prone to errors and experimental complications. For example, what happens if your female gets injured and needs an X-ray? You've just bombarded the ovaries with mutation-inducing radiation, and from then on, can't be sure if problems come from that or the breedings? That's just one example, but the point is, small sample sizes make it hard to tell what's a real effect.

Fifth, what do you intend to do with the offspring? There'll be a lot of these things, and euthanizing all of them would be expensive. If you do, I'd reccommend doing full dissections of all of them, both eyes and body cavities, in search of other abormalities, plus some simple morphological examinations such as vertebral counts, since you'd have the bodies on hand. In that event, I can recommend sources for formaldehyde and ethanol for preservation.

Sixth, is it really worth it? We already know that albino snakes are inbred, and that inbreeding inevitably causes hidden genetic problems to manifest, including deformities. What would really be gained, other than an understanding of the particulars of a line which, given that already-apparent defects, is likely to become inviable anyway within a few more generations?

I'd recommend reading up on what's already known of inbreeding in the scientific literature first; it may be that this idea would give us only modest additional knowledge in return for great effort, time, and money on your part.

I don't mean to sound down on this; believe me, I'm the *last* person to disparage experimentation. But experimentation must be done right in order to produce valid results, and sometimes it turns out that we already know so much about a given topic that, unless there's a reason to suspect something terribly out of the ordinary in this case, it's not really worth the time to pursue. Although reptile development is complicated by fluctuations in temperature, there's still little I can see that would lead me to suspect there's more going on than simple inbreeding depression. Hard numbers would help solidify that, but those could be acquired through existing breeding records (assuming records have been adequately kept).

Henry