Belly scale shape related to fatty hips

[vanderkm]

One of the criteria I have used to select breeding females is that they have perfect belly scale shape - no misshaped scales. I have been told that short, fragmented and abnormally shaped scales are associated with a tendency to fatty hips in a variety of colubrids. I know a few people have pursued this from a discussion on the cornsnakes forum last year - and results were that some corns with perfect scales have fatty hips and some with very abnormal bellies are not fat.

I thought I would post a pic of this girl of mine that has quite a bit of abnormal scute shape - those areas circled in blue - compared with the normal shaped scutes circled in pink. I bred her this year for the first time despite her fatty hips and quite a few of the offspring also have abnormally shaped belly scales.



I was wondering if anyone else looks at this and whether anyone has seen the association with fat deposits. Would be interested in more input -


mary v.