# Defects caused by in breeding in morph cresties



## josiebob (Aug 24, 2013)

Hi im new to the hobby, but thinking of breeding crested gecko colour morphs. I work in human genetics so I've got a little grasp of how it works. Was just wondering if anyone has noticed an increase in defects or null eggs when breeding in the morphs? I know in humans an cats U can get these lethal genes but as cresties seem almost to have a triple inherent, does this happen. Many thanks :2thumb:


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## josiebob (Aug 24, 2013)

Anyone any opinions? Would appreciate some help please!


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## rsmitty1000 (Oct 20, 2011)

For some reason people don't talk about the defects when breeding most exotic animals for some reason. :banghead:


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

I've had deformed eggs / babies after a brother and sister bred. ( not by me I must add ).


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## josiebob (Aug 24, 2013)

Thank U, dont know why people dont talk about it, surely if someone sees a bad match of parents then for the welfare of the animal it should b shared!


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## Muz333 (Aug 14, 2013)

Nice to see another scientist, I done Genetics as my undergrad.

I'm new to cresties and the whole reptile thing in general. I don't know what the ratio of good to bad clutches per morph is but it goes without saying to avoid consanguinity and outbreed to as distantly related geckos as possible.

This is simply to avoid a genetic bottleneck for any recessive "bad" alleles to become homozygous.


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## Tarron (May 30, 2010)

I cant say for cresties specifically, i've not heard of any inherent genetic defects, though there will no doubt be individual issues.

Buy genetic defects do occur within the hobby. For instance,

The spider gene is royal pythons
The enigma gene in leopard geckos
Super motley boas (i believe this is possibly just columbians)
There is a carpet python one i think.

People seem to fall in to 2, possibly 3, camps on the topic.

1. Those who believe we should do all we can to eradicate the issues. Who cares if that gene produces a beautiful morph, it causes genetic defects and lowers welfare so we should stop the breeding (I fall in to this category)

2. Those who know about the gene, but don't really care. The price and beauty of the morph, etc, is more valuable than the welfare of the affected animal. Many live in hope that their individual won't be affected by the gene, or it will remain minimal, but there doesn't appear to be any research to suggest breeding low affected animals creates low affected animals.

The third possible camp is those who are working with the gene in the hope they can produce a line of morphs free of defects. Possibly hoping the gene and defect sit on different loci and can be seperated.

There are very few studies into genetic defects in reptiles, the call for research is pretty low. The only one I am personally aware of is The Enigma Syndrome Study by Mal of Grinning Geckos. After a 2/3 year study collecting data, his study has been picked up by a renowned vet who is doing a more formal study, and including other species. 

Have a search on here for it, its very interesting.


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