this witch hunt is ridiculous.
"oh my god, he created a monster using three diffrent colubrids"
let me start by pointing out that KING SNAKES EAT SNAKES!! so any hybridizing that takes place using king snakes ( ecspecially cal kings) takes alot more time and experience than putting two boas in the same tub and pumping out live babies.
why would someone hybridize you ask...
"Because i like the way that Pyro King Corn Looks alot more than any corn snake, cal king or pyro i've ever seen."
it has produced a better snake. you assume that something has been lost in hybridizing. that is an ignorant statement!!!! any time you add new genes to an animal ( including humans) you are bettering it genetically by freshening the gene pool of that animal. you are in fact adding dominant genes that have been naturally selected over hundreds of thousands of years to a snake that would otherwise not have them.
corn snakes are boring and a dime a dozen. so what if we spiced it up some. threw in a little cal king and a lot of pyro. now we have a whole clutch of snakes that are genetically and astheticly superior to your corn snakes and your king snakes. as far as them being good feeders... pah-lease, i welcome you to try to feed them to one of your snakes.... i'll end up with a pyro king corn with a stuffed belly while you stand there scratching your head in astonishment. people are afraid of what they don't understand and i find this often puts tham in a defensive stance. between me and jerimiah we have the capabilities to hybirdize just about every snake in northern america with one another. we of course do not because we carefully select what is to be hybridized based on thier traits and behavior. take a look at that pyro king corn one last time. you want to know what we are learning?
1. we are learning about the properties of pigment and pattern in snakes.
2. we are learning about how universal pheromones are in different types of snakes.
3. we are learning that the breeding response is typically stronger than the feeding response.
4. we are learning that snakes are alot closer in relation to each other than we believed.
5. we are learning that Seamus is erked by snakes with big eyes.
6. we are learning that no matter how beautiful a snake may come out there will always be some purist out there who feels like we've commited some tabbo against nature like were fricken dr.frakenstein when in actuality the snakes bred on thier own free will. why would they do that unless...? maybe they are more closely related than we had thought. so chew on that for awhile and get back to me. in the meantime i'm gonna see what happens when you cross a purist with a chimpanzee. chances are thier offspring come out superior.
Chad Elmore
http://www.diablosnakefarm.com