We here at Periodic Table Pythons are committed to producing ball pythons without
sacrificing the well-being of our snakes. The health and
happiness of our pythons come before anything else, and we feel this includes
methods which may not be convenient or inexpensive for us (and which may or
may not be common practice for other breeders).
--- We never put down animals by putting them in the freezer or by any other
methods that have been shown to be inhumane. Sometimes it is necessary
to euthanize a python, whether it be a birth defect or severe illness, and in
order for the snake to feel the least amount of discomfort possible, we take
the animal to our local reptile vet to be put down properly. The only exception
to this rule would be when the snake is clearly in pain and suffering, where
waiting to take the snake to the vet would be more cruel than, say, putting
the snake in the freezer.
See this
AMVA article (pages 23 & 24) for more information on accepted euthanasia
methods for reptiles.
--- We never euthanize animals unless absolutely necessary. If a
defect does not interfere with a snake's ability to eat, drink, etc.,
it deserves a chance at life. We believe that euthanization should be a last
resort, used only to end needless suffering.
--- Normals or low-cost morphs are treated the same as expensive morphs. Each snake
is a tiny, unique life, and they deserve respect even if they lost the genetic
lottery.
--- We never breed siblings to siblings or offspring to their parents.
While it supposedly takes several generations of inbreeding ball pythons to produce fatal
genetic defects, we believe inbreeding should be kept to a minimum
in order to keep the gene pool as diverse as possible. The only exception to
this rule is for genetically proving new or unknown morphs (called "line breeding"),
for which there is no other alternative.
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