SnakeEyesExotics
New member
It brings tears to my eyes to even type this out right now, but here goes...
I was on my way home from work earlier this evening and Adam (my husband) calls and says that we have baby boas! He had just caught a glimpse of them in the cage at that point. I love coming home to babies, so I was stoked the rest of the way home! When I finally make it home, I go out to the reptile building to see the babies.
Unfortunately, four of the babies had some deformities that affected their head and eyes. One obviously had some neurological issues also as it could not keep it's head upright, but the other three seemed ok in that respect. Out of the affected babies, two were albinos and two were het albinos. Their heads were oddly shaped and somewhat lumpy looking. The jaws were wider, with the eyes situated towards the top of their heads, almost similar to a water snake. I have attached pictures below.
Now, Adam and I have talked a little in the past about deformities. The main topic was specifically quality of life issues. Can they live a fulfilling, quality life? Then there is the ethics standpoint. Do you give them a chance to live and find them a good "pet only" home, or do you put them down to keep them out of the gene pool for sure? If you do find them a good "pet only" home, how do you guarantee that they will never be bred? Especially if it is out of state. How do you also guarantee that any future owners will offer the snake a "pet only" home?
Sadly, we both came to the same conclusion. From a breeder standpoint, we felt that it was better for the quality of life of the babies, and for the sake of not risking future breeding of said babies, to put them in the freezer.
In the three years that Adam and I have been breeding boas and ball pythons together, this is my first experience with deformities in our babies. Putting those four baby boas in the deep freezer and shutting the door has absolutely been the hardest thing I have ever had to do in the many years that I have been keeping snakes...I bawled my eyes out through the whole process and again have tears streaming down my face as I type this out...
I guess I was lucky to have made it this long without any issues, but that still does not make it any easier to bear.
To all the snake owners out there that are considering breeding or have started breeding your snakes. There is a tremendous amount of enjoyment to be experienced from breeding your snakes and watching babies be born/hatched! But many people don't realize that there is also a darker, sad side to producing living, breathing animals. As a breeder, their lives are in your hands, and the decisions are not always easy to make. I realize that many will not agree with our personal decision, but I feel that it was the right thing to do for these babies and this particular scenario.
Thank you for reading,
Anya Hogan
I was on my way home from work earlier this evening and Adam (my husband) calls and says that we have baby boas! He had just caught a glimpse of them in the cage at that point. I love coming home to babies, so I was stoked the rest of the way home! When I finally make it home, I go out to the reptile building to see the babies.
Unfortunately, four of the babies had some deformities that affected their head and eyes. One obviously had some neurological issues also as it could not keep it's head upright, but the other three seemed ok in that respect. Out of the affected babies, two were albinos and two were het albinos. Their heads were oddly shaped and somewhat lumpy looking. The jaws were wider, with the eyes situated towards the top of their heads, almost similar to a water snake. I have attached pictures below.
Now, Adam and I have talked a little in the past about deformities. The main topic was specifically quality of life issues. Can they live a fulfilling, quality life? Then there is the ethics standpoint. Do you give them a chance to live and find them a good "pet only" home, or do you put them down to keep them out of the gene pool for sure? If you do find them a good "pet only" home, how do you guarantee that they will never be bred? Especially if it is out of state. How do you also guarantee that any future owners will offer the snake a "pet only" home?
Sadly, we both came to the same conclusion. From a breeder standpoint, we felt that it was better for the quality of life of the babies, and for the sake of not risking future breeding of said babies, to put them in the freezer.
In the three years that Adam and I have been breeding boas and ball pythons together, this is my first experience with deformities in our babies. Putting those four baby boas in the deep freezer and shutting the door has absolutely been the hardest thing I have ever had to do in the many years that I have been keeping snakes...I bawled my eyes out through the whole process and again have tears streaming down my face as I type this out...
I guess I was lucky to have made it this long without any issues, but that still does not make it any easier to bear.
To all the snake owners out there that are considering breeding or have started breeding your snakes. There is a tremendous amount of enjoyment to be experienced from breeding your snakes and watching babies be born/hatched! But many people don't realize that there is also a darker, sad side to producing living, breathing animals. As a breeder, their lives are in your hands, and the decisions are not always easy to make. I realize that many will not agree with our personal decision, but I feel that it was the right thing to do for these babies and this particular scenario.
Thank you for reading,
Anya Hogan
*hugs*
There is no easy way for me to deal with this, but it does help somewhat to share it with others who can relate or who can learn from it.
