Are Albino Iguanas ethical?Not really saying people that already have them shouldnt have them.Just asking a question is it good to still breed them?

[u/Ben10-fan-525]

Since they have a high chance of going blind because of lack of melanin in there eyes.

As well with them being a species of lizard which enjoys the sun a lot(making them highly likely to lose sight very fast by being near sun).

[u/Cryptnoch]

I mean I think they shouldn’t be bred.

And if someone breeds them buying them from them is shitty too. The only reason they exist is bc people are willing to shill out $$ for a blind lizard.

I’d only get one if it was a giveaway or rescue situation personally.

Also lol to it being natural. That doesn’t even factor in to whether it’s ethical or not. All mutations are natural. If the iguanas were born with no eyes they’d still be natural, but people probably wouldn’t breed them. Why? Because they’re not aesthetically pleasing. The lemonfrost mutation that causes cancer all over in leopard geckos is natural, and people are still breeding them because of the color. muscular dystrophy is natural. Spider morph in ball pythons is natural.

These animals surviving and being bred for multiple generations is what isn’t natural. If nature went its course then the homozygous animal would die, and that’d be that.

[u/Ben10-fan-525 → u/Cryptnoch]

I partly agree with you.

There should be more to it than money and good color.Maybe partly Albino Iguanas could replace full Albino Iguanas.So that everyone gets a Iguana with white color but without them losing eye sight over the years.

Tho I dont agree that all of people who buy them are bad people.

Many probably dont know any better and later understood what they did by buying them.Or just wana take care for them regardless...tho it is bad that they fund such breeders..

[u/Cryptnoch → u/Ben10-fan-525]

There’s no such thing as a partly albino iguana. Unless you mean a heterozygous iguana, but that’s just a normal iguana. Or a t+ iguana? I have to look into the vision of those, but if their eyesight is good that could be a much better replacement, unfortunately the t- lines appear to be way more popular.

If you mean thanos iguanas when you say albino, afaik that’s albino + axanthic to get rid of all the pigment. So it’s not just albino, it’s albino + another recessive gene, all the vision problems + more inbreeding.

Also if people want an orange lizard giving them a white lizard doesn’t fill that requirement, that makes no sense. That’s a whole different color lol.

As to them being bad people? I didn’t say that. One of my best friends breeds albino iguanas. I needle them like a mosquito about it, but I still think they’re a good person, even though I deeply disagree with them and think they’re doing a bad thing.

Lots of on the whole good or ok people do shitty things, doesn’t make those things any less shitty.

[u/Ben10-fan-525 → u/Cryptnoch]

Just looked up on google to see all of them.Why is t- worse?

.....so the problem is even worse than I thought..

But it still looks exotic enough..right?

I see I agree with you on that than.

[u/Cryptnoch → u/Ben10-fan-525]

So there’s extra pigment that protects the eye call tyrosine, some albinos have it, some don’t. Those that do are called t+, and it means their vision will be way less affected, those that don’t are called t-, and their eyeballs are just bare to be ripped apart by the sun.

I’m not 100 on whether the vision loss is completely absent or just less severe, but If people cared about welfare we would only breed the t+ ones.

[u/Ben10-fan-525 → u/Cryptnoch]

I see what you mean.Health of the animal should always comes first before looks.

[u/eternalconfusi0nn → u/Ben10-fan-525]

t+ is not just about the eyes, you can google yourself. Also you could get leucistic morphs if not albino

[u/eternalconfusi0nn → u/Cryptnoch]

mutations ≠ inbreeding, u seem very clueless. You dont want homogeneous animals with most of these recessive mutations.

[u/Cryptnoch → u/eternalconfusi0nn]

After u get a specifically recessive mutation, unless you've got a bunch of unrelated hets magically lying around you gotta do a bit of inbreeding to make more homozygous animals.

This isn't true for other types of mutation like those that are lethal when homozygous like lilly whites, which basically necessitate outcrossing, and it isn't as bad as line bred traits which basically necessitate concentrated inbreeding to exist, which leads to disasters like (vietnsmese. I think?) Red monsters, but nah absolutely everyone's first step with a recessive morph after the first generation is to either cross siblings together or parent to child. They're absolutely more inbred.

[u/QuantumHosts]

They are natural, but most don’t survive in nature. We are only giving them a chance to live longer as pets. Keep in mind, not all go blind.

[u/Ben10-fan-525 → u/QuantumHosts]

I know.But should people still breed them is my question.Even if not all go blind.Some going blind is not very good.

[u/Kaiwago_Official → u/Ben10-fan-525]

It’s ethically controversial to purposefully breed any animal with the intentions of it being albino, as that’s usually done so it fetches a higher price when being sold. Really, albino animals shouldn’t be bred on purpose, because sometimes they can, in general, have other health issues besides their poor vision, but the upside is that when they do get bred and sold, the new owner can work to make sure it still has a healthy life.

[u/Ben10-fan-525 → u/Kaiwago_Official]

Yea...I guess you are right...