Expert: BPC - 10/21/2009

Question
Ok, my husband and I own 2 ball pythons. They were purchased from a reptile specialty pet store and in this case were actually breed there. The are 1 male (Rocky), and 1 female (Sunsa) and are clutch? mates (siblings). This is where I get concerned. We NEVER intended to breed them, it actually never even crossed our minds that duh! male %26 female..... Well anyway a friend of ours, not knowing they were siblings asked "when" we breed them if she could have one. We still don't "intend" to breed them, but since its been brought to our attention they very well may breed on their own, should we separate them? My concern is inbred genetic defects. they are about 10 months old now, and I'm not even sure when they hit breeding age, we've never looked into it. I will admit this is a lapse in our knowledge I intend to fix.

Answer
OK, inbreeding is not as big a deal with snakes as it would be with humans.  In fact, many of the designer morphs we see in the market are the result of inbreeding or line breeding.  I wouldn't worry greatly about this, leave them together and IF they breed see whats happens.