fren-in-your-computr asked:
Can u tell me why breeding scaleless snakes are bad? /genuinely asking (im not trying to pick a fight- im just trying to understand 😊)
is-the-snake-video-cute answered:
Sure thing! The basic idea is that scales are really important to how a snake functions, and when you mess with that, you tamper with the snake’s ability to be a snake.
Scaleless rat/cornsnakes are unethical but they’re not, like, the worst thing ever. The snake will still have belly scutes but lack scales on their backs and sides. The main issues a scaleless rat/corn will suffer from are:
- Mobility issues caused by the lack of scales along the sides. Snake movement is complex and involves muscles attached to the belly and side scales, so without side scales, they’re clumsy and have issues holding on to things
- Shedding issues
- Increased risk of injury - snake skin really isn’t meant to just be exposed
Unethical! But it could be worse.
Scaleless ball pythons are such an unethical morph I consider breeding them to be animal abuse, full-stop. The scaleless morph in ball pythons is more extreme than rat/corns, and also involves the loss of belly scales.
Along with the issues scaleless rat/corns deal with, scaleless ball pythons also suffer through:
- Even worse mobility issues due to the lack of belly scales, which are the most important when it comes to mobility
- Belly sores - that’s a load-bearing part of the body that’s now unprotected
- Massive, massive difficulty eating. Ball pythons have heat pits on their lips to detect infrared signatures, and that’s what they rely on to eat. These pits are set into the scales, and the scaleless morph doesn’t know what to do with them so they’re just gone. Scaleless bps are left not being able to use the way they’ve evolved to hunt and find food.
There’s a reason you can’t find any scaleless ball pythons who are full-grown.
Because of all these issues, I consider it unethical to breed scaleless snakes, and I strongly recommend avoiding buying from anyone who breeds them.
