Genetically unhealthy reptiles

So there are quite a few unhealthy reptile morphs out there and I only discovered most of them by fluke, so I thought I’d make a masterpost. There are likely many more which I haven’t heard of yet, so feel free to expand on this post with others.

Enigma Leopard Geckos

The Enigma morph is one that covers the Geckos body in little spots that look like freckles, very cute but it comes with a devastating condition known as “Enigma syndrome” This disorder affects a Geckos fine motor control and results in many secondary symptoms such as stargazing (looking upwards frequently), walking around in circles frequently, wobbly and difficult walking, seizures, and an inability to catch prey due to their aim being affected from this condition. Overall it significantly decreases their quality of life. An animal may not demonstrate this condition for many years, it can come on years into their life. This is a dominant genetic disorder meaning any animal which is an enigma will pass this onto offspring. Even ‘healthy’ appearing animals will carry this gene and pass it along to offspring. The Enigma morph needs to be phased out completely since all who are Enigma have the potential to develop this disorder.

Sunkissed Corn Snakes

The Sunkissed morph is pictured above, rather striking in its vivid colouration. However the price for it is something known as "Stargazing Syndrome” which is pictured in the right side photograph. Stargazing syndrome is a vestibular syndrome (balance affecting condition) which prevents normal functionality of the central nervous system and causes these snakes to twist their necks and heads upwards towards the sky. Basically put, these snakes can’t work out which way is up and are often found upside down on their backs. It affects these snakes by causing difficulty moving, disorientation, inability to right themselves into a normal position if on their backs, and sometimes even tremors and seizures. Once again a genetic disorder, however since its recessive you often won’t know if the snake is a carrier or not. The only way to tell if a snake carries the stargazing trait is to breed them; any who prove to carry this trait should never be bred again.

Spider Ball Pythons

The Spider morph is absolutely stunning, characteristic of that 'drippy’ black patterning on the body and a rather unique head stamp/pattern. It can come in many varieties since it’s commonly bred into other morphs such as pied, banana, etc. However it causes something called “Wobble Syndrome” which is a severe neurological disorder. This is hypothesised to be caused by an error in the neural crest during embryonic development. The neural crest is responsible for arranging neurons in the correct positions and depositing pigmentation. This morph alters where pigment is usually placed in the body, giving them the gorgeous appearance, however it consequently prevents neurons from reaching their correct positions, hence the neurological disorder. Wobble Syndrome causes many severe and debilitating issues to the snake. The most noticeable being 'corkscrewing’ which is where the snake will flip it’s head and neck upside down, right way up, and upside down again in quick succession. However they are also affected by head tremors, difficulty moving, lack of coordination, inability to right itself if upside down, torticollis (neck spasms), poor muscle tone, and difficulty eating due to head wobbling and missed strikes. Wobble Syndrome is a dominant genetic disorder meaning any snake which expresses the spider phenotype will suffer from and pass on this disorder to offspring. It can range from barely noticeable to severe, and an animal may not suffer at first, but can develop the disorder after several years of being 'healthy’. The Spider morph needs to be phased out completely since all who are Spider have the potential to develop this disorder.

Jaguar Carpet Pythons

The Jaguar morph has to be one of the most visually stunning morphs out there, it’s characterised by it’s gorgeous spots which resemble a jaguars. However the price they pay for their beauty is once again, “Wobble Syndrome”. Jaguars are identical to Spider Ball Pythons in their suffering, and it’s even thought that the Neural Crest deformity is the cause for these guys too. It is important to note that there are several species who can carry the jaguar gene. The gene originated in Jungle Carpet Pythons but has since been bred into other Carpet Pythons (CP for short) species such as the Irian Jaya CP, Darwin CP, Coastal CP, and Diamond CP. Pretty much the only difference with the Jaguar morph is that it is not a dominant gene like the spider morph, and it’s not a recessive gene like the sunkissed morph. The Jaguar gene is a co-dominant mutation. What that means is that the Jaguar gene is visible along with whatever other gene the snake carries. You almost always have two genes for something, and in codominance neither of those genes are recessive to the other, and neither are dominating to the other either. This means both genes express, so to put that into a visual sense (but not genetically accurate!) if you bred a black and a white cat together, the offspring would be black and white if they were co-dominant. This just like the spider and enigma morph means any snake which expresses the Jaguar phenotype has the ability to develop Wobble Syndrome and will pass it along to offspring. The Jaguar morph needs to be phased out completely since all who are Jaguar have the potential to develop this disorder.

Silkback Bearded Dragons and Scaleless Snakes

Silkback bearded dragons and Scaleless snakes are exactly what they sound like, they are completely devoid of any and all scales and instead only have the layer of skin present beneath reptile scales. I admit I do not know much about Scaleless snakes, but assume they suffer the same affects as the silkback bearded dragons so have included them here. Silkback bearded dragons are produced when two leatherback bearded dragons are bred together. The leatherback gene is co-dominant (it can also be recessive) and if a dragon receives two copies of this co-dominant gene then they are a silkback. Co-dominance means two genes are working together, so one copy of leatherback and one copy of normal scales means together these genes create a dragon who has reduced spikes and scales but they still have scales! Two copies of the leatherback gene means the co-dominance has nothing to partner with, so the dragon we get is completely devoid of scales. Now, for an animal which is supposed to have scales, having no scales comes with many severe issues. The main being that they suffer extreme shedding difficulty and have no protection from sharp objects or other dragons. Scalesless animals can easily be cut or punctured from ornaments in a tank which are safe for their scaled or leatherback counterparts. Even a basking log, brick, or rock can cut them if they run against it wrong. This means their tank needs to be almost empty or only have soft, pliable decor which provides no risk of injury. This can be severely damaging to the animals mental wellbeing as there is no enrichment opportunities for the animal. Shedding wise, these animals need to be soaked in baths almost daily to maintain skin hydration, and when it comes time to shed their shed will shrink to their skin and it’s often for them to lose toes, bits of tail, or even get pieces stuck around their heads and necks which can cause severe damage. You can also not breed silkback bearded dragons (am unsure about Scaleless snakes?) pairing another dragon with a silkback will cause extreme injury. If the silkback is female, the male bearded dragon will cut her open with his claws as he mounts her and he will tear her shoulders and neck open where he holds her with his mouth. These injuries can be life threatening. Furthermore, if the silkback is male he may receive lacerations and cuts to his stomach upon mounting the female or he may be critically injured if she rejects him and bites or scratches in retaliation. If all of that isn’t bad enough these scaleless animals also have an increased risk of illness due to decreased immunity (immunity decreased due to unknown reason) and suffer extremely reduced lifespans. Scalesless animals are an incredibly unnatural and disgusting morph which needs to be completely phased out.

That’s all for my masterpost currently. There are likely many more unhealthy morphs I have yet to hear of, so please inform me if you know of any others I’ve neglected to mention and I shall research and add them here. Please do not ever support or purchase one of these animals as it encourages the breeding of severely unhealthy animals with significantly reduced quality of life. With so many healthy and wonderful morphs and species available there is absolutely no reason to ever purchase one of these.

reminder to please don’t smoke around your animals, I don’t care what it is or if “they like it” please don’t smoke around your pets. vape included.

Bruce looks awfully pretty in the sunshine ☀️

Why won’t my dog play fetch with me?

…Food?

Food here??

Where food??

Be a friend to snakes

If you’re interested in getting one of these as a sticker, patch, or pin, reblog to let me know!! I can also draw your snake in; message me for details :)

a wild egg appeared?

everyone who reblogs it before Oct 25 will get a Pokemon based on their blog in their submit inbox (make sure submit is open!)

happy hatching!

If I fucking see this bullshit in my facebook feed again I swear to god 

PITS ARE USED TO SENSE BODY HEAT AND DO NOT INDICATE THE PRESENCE OF VENOM

EYES *ONLY* CORRELATE TO WHETHER IT’S AN AMBUSH PREDATOR OR NOT

SCALES. WHY THE FUCK WOULD THE SHAPE OF THE BELLY SCALES TELL YOU ANYTHING ABOUT THIS GODDAMN ANIMALS MOUTH?

And for the love of GOD ITS VENOMOUS NOT POISONOUS. VENOM = BITES YOU, YOU DED. POISONOUS = YOU BITE IT, YOU DED. 

DO YOUR FUCKING RESEARCH GODFUCKINGDAMNIT

YOU KNOW WHO HAS ALL THESE TRAITS? 

MY FUCKING BALL PYTHON 

GUESS WHAT

SHE ISN’T VENEMOUS 

currently in the process of buying this cutie. 💜🖤

Reptile people check this out, beware of this woman

This is the face of an animal abuser.

Lisa Presnell (@pagesandpaper on instagram) frequently uses paint on her snake, Lars. To look at him you’d think the poor reptile was about 5 months old because he’s so tiny and malnourished. He obviously isn’t being fed enough. He’s actually 2 years old. He has stuck sheds which are incredibly uncomfortable for snakes and can cause serious health problems for them. He is also slightly blue from paint not coming off properly.

Lisa Presnell is an animal abuser.

She does not care for her snake, she abuses him and uses him as a prop to make money from her sponsors. The poor animal is underweight and has skin problems, and is balled up in most of the pictures. Ball pythons only do that when they’re scared.

Lisa Presnell has abused her snake so much he is living in constant fear.

There is NO NEED TO PAINT A SNAKE. Mine is never painted in any of the photos I take. It being a Nontoxic paint for humans is not an excuse because it being Nontoxic for us is not the same for animals.

Please share this post, report her on Instagram, and make it known that animal abuse of any kind is not okay.

EDIT // I think it’s okay to take photos of your animals with books. I do that too.

However I don’t think it’s okay that she KNOWS IT’S Wrong but continues to do it.

She has been told off numerous times by the snake community and she still does it.

Reptile hobby

The more and more I get into this hobby and fall in love with every aspect of it the more depressing it is in an entirely different way. When I first went to repticon 3 years ago I saw all of these cool morphs and colors and I was kind of like a kid at a toy store.

I watched AnimalBytes tv and hung off of every word Bryan said and I had my favorite snakes and morphs. I would tell all of my non reptile friends about everything on the show and annoy the hell out of them. I would see pictures of snakes together in a cage and I thought they were cute friends. I was making plans for everything I wanted to do and how many snakes I could have and it was great! Then the more I started digging there was this small voice coming from what I assumed were ignorant people.

Then I came to tumblr and started seeing people so passionate for the first time about THE ANIMALS and not money or a snake breeding empire. It turns out that the voice that I was hearing was the voice of reason but I didn’t fully understand or comprehend the gravity of these situations until I was in reptiblr for a while. Reading blogs like @wheremyscalesslither @crispysnakes and other extremely knowledgeable people on here educated me enough to know that I had to relearn everything I thought I knew. I had no idea that there were morphs with neurological or physical health issues like the spider morph. I had no idea that people were so actively supporting something that was so obviously wrong or even by their arguments questionable at best.

I learned the proper way to house and take care of my animals and even though I cannot have as many as I originally intended, I know now that it’s better to have 3 healthy snakes with proper husbandry and enrichment than having 8 that aren’t having a higher quality of life.

I guess I’m saying that there is an extremely sketchy possibly even dark side to the reptile community that is honestly the face that welcomes you into the hobby. I just hope people that are new to the hobby come in with an open mind and do your research. Find people that are knowledgable and people you know you can trust and let them help you. No one is infallible so still make sure to read up and do your homework.

This isn’t a game, you are caring for another life and you have a responsibility not only to keep them happy and healthy but to keep bettering yourself as a reptile keeper. You never know everything and you might even need to reevaluate what you thought was law. That’s what separates the people that care about the animals from the people that care about HAVING the animals.

Mara’s Intro

Im Mara Vegas. Im a demon. My role in the system is a bit complex. I used to be a protector, then i was a persecutor, now im in between.

Im sadistic, sarcastic, apathetic.  

I dont have any real hobbies although im argumentative. I like arguing. I find it funny. does that count ?

there really isnt much to me.

Mac and I have known each other for a very long time. We used to be best friends. nowwww. not so much. birch and i get along i guess. she takes after me even if we arent related. she always has tried way too hard to impress me though. and follows me around like a lost puppy. but whatever. 

Sora I practically raised although she ended up nothing like me or Birch. 

She ended up like Mac surprisingly. 

Birch, Sora, and Mac are siblings. Sora the youngest, Mac the oldest. 

I was just around a lot. Practically moved in at one point. 

I honestly dont know what the hell to say.  there really is nothing interesting about me.

Oh, also deacon from @starlingsystem tends to take after me as well. its sad… hes just…. pathetic .. #sorrynotsorry 

at least i have original material… . . 

honestly i only found him interesting because he stirred shit up.

and i knew i could use him easily.

im nice like that.

- Mara