The No-Insults Hybridization Debate

Originally Posted by cthulhu77

Quote: "Want a cool one of a kind snake? "

Sure...oh wait, you mean a hybrid. Naw, never mind...too bad you don't put so much energy into a project that has some good long term goals...like really getting the mandarin rat snakes going, or perhaps any of the other beautiful colubrids out there.
Hybrids= waste of feeder mice

You? Not toot your own horn? Uhhhh.....please.

As stated before...sure there are some pretty ones out there, not faulting that...it's just that they are a genetic dead end, and a big accident waiting to happen.
greg

Greater than 90% of all the species that arose on this planet have gone extinct. The preponderance of those "ended" with no human involvement.

If you believe in evolution you might notice that species change and evolve....some die out while new ones are discovered.

If you believe ceation then all is predestined and some things die out and new things are discovered.

If you are human you might notice that some humans love to create change regardless of the consequences and sometimes good things come of it and other times they don't.

There are usually three trains of thought on any subject; for, against, and apathetic.

This will not change.

Life, however, will continue to change. We can't stop it. If the only Black Headed Pythons left to the hobbiests in this country all carry JCP blood so be it. Somewhere in the world there may or may not be pure bloods.

Do I believe in hybridization? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Will hybridizing affect the course of the future? I don't know. Neither do you.

The hybrid question when purchasing will be similar to the het question. Is it or isn't it? You wont know until you breed it....if even then.

Having only gotten into the snake hobby less than a year ago I am still pretty much clueless when an animal is a hybrid. This is especially in reference to colubrid hybrids like "jungle" etc. I did buy one, it was represented as a "jungle zigzag kingsnake". She is quite attractive and thriving. I came to realize that she is a hybrid in the course of my online research on kingsnakes and cornsnakes. She is phenotypically more cornsnake looking than kingsnake looking. Except her conformation is more kingsnake, "no-neck". Anyway, I do not ordinarily seek to aquire hybrids. I have her now and would love to know more about her geneology. In absence of that, I have every intention of keeping her-and yes, am even considering breeding her. I do agree with some of the concerns expressed. I hope that there would continue to be conscientious and committed persons in both camps. Those who breed true to species and maintain the natural genotypes. And those who hybridize but are completely forthcomming about the pedigrees of the animals they produce. As an aside, I am also very interested in the Tricolor Lampropeltis. I do not like the "apricot", "tangerine", "hypo" or "anery" types. I prefer NORMALS. And, have found that it can be difficult finding normals. After reading some of the posts made in this thread, I am giving serious consideration to maybe making that MY project-NORMAL tricolors. Of course, I would have to be able to find animals that are not het for the morphs that I find undesirable. Perhaps this is a whole other topic.