How many blue tegu bloodlines are in the US?

[starksark]

Thinking about adding and breeding these guys soon, but worried a little about genetic diversity. How many separate lines are there in the US, and who has them? I'd hate to buy a boy and a girl from seperate people and find out they're half-siblings.

Crystal

 

[DaveDragon]

There is no diversity. They originated from 6 to 8 hatchlings imported about 8 years ago. But if you think about it, my 4 year old male & female Bue's HAVE to be direct descendants of the original group because they can't breed until they're 3 years old (5 years ago), making my Blue's first generation inbred. My baby Blues were hatched from parents from different states, they look very different, but there's no way to know if they're brother & sister. I highly doubt it. The babies show no signs of genetic deformations, they're all healthy. But they are cousins.

I was going to trade a hatchling with wil to give each of us different blood to breed another generation, but we don't have room to raise 2 more adult Tegu's. But, who knows, that could change.

Wil is in NC. You could buy one of his and buy one of mine to have a good chance of limited genetic diversity. I haven't had them sexed, our herp vet wants $100 to do it. Unless I find someone (or a couple of) people who want a definite sex (and will pay the charge), I doubt I will do it.