Lets talk about hybridization.....

Though I feel its done totally because: A: Let's see if this works and B: it will make lots of money if it does...I tend to not be a fan. It reminds me much of the fad of the designer dogs. People think that mixing two breeds will guarantee genetic defects from each breed will be canceled out, but that has shown to be the complete opposite. And some hybrid reptiles have shown health issues not otherwise experienced.

However, I am not ruler of the world and I'm not gonna tell someone what they should and shouldn't do. IMO so long as the animals are being well cared for, the breeder is taking all necessary steps to ensure breeders and hatchlings are healthy, and that they go to good homes, then its ok by me.

As a biologist, hybridization to me is essentially defined as a reduction in genetic variability. Although species can hybridize, what that essentially means is that the species diverged relatively recently in evolutionary history. Genes were isolated due to geographic isolation, changes in the timing and behavior of social activity, or due to climate changes. Given enough time, these species would eventually become so different they could no longer interbreed.

To me, hybridization undoes eons of natural selection and genetic isolation. I typically disapprove of fertile hybrids on a philosophical level, but also because of the risk of genetic contamination in captive and wild stocks. I find crossbreeding kings, corns, and bull snakes particularly distasteful for this reason.

Before I was able to keep many reptiles I kept lots of tropical fish and dart frogs and in those two other hobbies hybrids are highly frowned upon. With reptiles there doesn't seem to be as negative an attitude towards it and as a result many people have taken it upon themselves to cross species for whatever reason. I see it a lot with the lanpropeltis genus of milksnakes and it's unfortunate because these snakes are all closely related and by producing hybrids you increase the chance of genetically polluting a species should the hybrids be fertile. Therefore, I don't even deal with people who I know produce hybrids of any sort.