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Genetics of Poor Temperaments

Art Klass

Art Klass

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I am working on a project that is focused on a Central American BCI with a nasty attitude. I will pair her with a tame male to try and compensate for her shortcomings. Anyone have any experience with breeding the nasty out of snakes? What was your situation and what results did you notice from the offspring?
 
Is a good temperment really a genetically inheritable trait? I put a little thought into the possibility when I noticed that most ads placed for anacondas say something along the lines of "typical conda attitude". I have a 6-7 foot female yellow anaconda that's literally the calmest most even-tempered snake I've ever met. In the next couple of years after I learn more I want to try to breed her to an equally calm male if I find one I like. I kinda joked to myself that I wanted to produce 100% het for NICE offspring. I pretty much thought I was being foolish..is that really how it works??
 
That's what I am trying to find out. It seems to me that most everything is genetic to some extent or another. I believe that it is entirely possible that temperament falls into the genetic category. Dispositions must be determined by something. You can selectively breed something into a line and you can breed something out as well.
 
I always assumed that among animals that rely more on instinct than reason, their temperment would be more a product of their environment than a genetic thing. My thinking was that wild snakes were "nasty" cause they had to be to survive and pet snakes were generally docile cause of handling and a lack of stress. Probably an over simplified view on my part.
 
I was recently in contact with a guy about his ATBs, and queried the temperament of his snakes and the ability to handle them. Was informed that ALL his current ATBs were handleable, as well as the several generations before that. Told me that his "line" of ATBs had a natural 'genetic' disposition to being calm-mannered snakes.

I definitely dont dispute it...but is this possible?
 
Everything we are as people is a genetic result of what our parents gave us. That makeup is then shaped by our environment and experiences. I believe it isn't any different for any living creature.

If we breed two nasty snakes together, the vast majority of their offspring will have a genetic propensity for nastiness. The opposite is true if two well manered and calm snakes are bred together. I suspect if a well tempered snake and a nasty snake are bred together the majority of their offspring will have an okay temperament. Some will be on the nasty side and some will be on the nicer side.

So, I'm looking for someone has has some hands on experience breeding a nasty snake and a well mannered snake. What did their offspring turn out like?
 
Art, I agree, I found when breeding Rottweilers that temperment was somehow in the genetics.

I bred a sweet but small female to a HUGE but not always so nice, over protective male, thinking I could incorporate some of his looks into her niceness. I had 3 puppies, 1 at 3 weeks started to growl and just be nasty, it took all I had to get that out of that puppy, left uncontrolled she would have wound up nasty likeher dad.

I later bred that same female to a sweet HUGE male and had 6 puppies, all were angels.

I am 100% POSITIVE that I am just like my dad, bullheaded, hot tempered and very emotional.

I think that genetics plays into the temperments and emotional parts of for all living creatures.
 
Interesting, but how then do you explain two siblings with total opposite personalities. Same genes, same environment..totally different personalities.
 
Well unless they are twins they do not have the same genes they have 1/2 from each parent, does not mean that each sibling gets the exact same genes from each parent, if that was the case there would only be one sex between all siblings.
 
... hit submit too soon

It has been proven that environment plays a part with twins, but that is something that happens after the genetics.
 
Interesting, but how then do you explain two siblings with total opposite personalities. Same genes, same environment..totally different personalities.
 
As I said The only way 2 siblings could be gentically the same is identical twins, same genes, but not always the same environment:

Example
Twin 1 healthy, never sick, always sleeps all night

Twin 2 healthy but gets ear infections or colic, never sleeps at night

Those 2 twins will have different personalities, because one was possibly held more (because of no sleep, illness, not enough hands when one is happy and alseep and the other is screaming), one has to go to the DR more, one doesn't develop good sleep habits for future life.

The environment is the same but the way each twin developed may be different.

It would really take a book to explain all of the possibilities.

With snakes you may have a poor eater that is held more, pampered more than a great feeder. It applies to all levels of life. Same genes doesn't mean the same outcome.
 
So is it possible then that someone can claim to have a genetic line of snakes that are puppy tame in spite of their "natural dispositions" seen in the majority of individuals?
 
So is it possible then that someone can claim to have a genetic line of snakes that are puppy tame in spite of their "natural dispositions" seen in the majority of individuals?
Click to expand...
Yes. If someone took the time to find well manered individuals of an otherwise nasty species and bred them together then the resulting offspring will more than likely be well manered.
 
I have seen a nastiness in blood red corns also. I can't speak for them all but a lot of people I have spoken to have said their blood reds are nasty too.
 
I have seen a nastiness in blood red corns also. I can't speak for them all but a lot of people I have spoken to have said their blood reds are nasty too.
Click to expand...
Have you ever bred any of these guys? Nasty or not?
 
Sorry Art I have never bred them. I can tell you that I had 2.2 and they were ALL nasty little buggers. They acted more like Asian rats than Corns. I handled these guys everyday just like the rest of my corns and they never settled down in the year I had them. I have been told by others that this seems to be something passed on with blood red trait.....
 
Skunky said:
So is it possible then that someone can claim to have a genetic line of snakes that are puppy tame in spite of their "natural dispositions" seen in the majority of individuals?
Click to expand...

I would say yes, but that is just my personal thought on genetics and the outcome of a ton of other factors.

There was not too long ago an article in Reptiles Magazine about GTp or ETb, can't remember and donated it to my sons school, that gave a vast base of knowledge of how to prevent bites from a well known biting type of snake. Only reason I read it is because I would love to one day own a GTP but without the bite issues.

But ponder this, shipping is stress, can stress take a toll on disposition, would you be happy if shipped? Some may get over it faster than others.

I have had quite a few reptiles purchased at a more than low price because they were just pain mean and I never had a problem with them. So maybe shipping scared them "straight".
 
"I have had quite a few reptiles purchased at a more than low price because they were just pain mean " Would it be unreasonable for someone that produces unusually docile offspring of a species that's generally aggressive to charge a premium for them based solely on their "nice" genes? Not sure where I'm going with this..guess I'm just curious about the potential affect on the business end of things.
 
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