Re: Controversial Topic but I am curious
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Willie76
Agreed. But we're dealing with human being and if there is a dollar sign attached, there's no way to control this. They'll get sold, given up, and end up in someone's collection where the uniqueness will be bred once again. Personally against hybrids as we're forcing something that (I am guessing) rarely occurs in their natural habitat.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
4theSNAKElady
Im not against hybrids if (again) they were "kept on a short leash". I personally would own a hybrid just to have one in my collection, not to breed. I think some hybrids are awesome lookin animals, and a friend of mine has one in his collection. Its my favorite snake of all of his animals. Its a blood/ball and she is super kewl lookin.
These both right here^.
Story time!
TimTim of TJL Exotics and I were strolling through the White Plains expo Last weekend. I noticed there unmarked snakes at Outback Reptiles booth, they looked like angry balls (angolan/ball python hybrid). So we inquired about them and why they were unmarked and all the way at the end of the table. One of the gentleman at the booth was very nice and took the time to talk to us even though the snakes weren't for sale. He said that they got them in as 3 Angolans from a friend who got them in a trade and thought that's what they were. He was a pretty nice guy and really did make it sound like his buddy just made an honest mistake. He then said that they're cool and he'd always wondered what breeding them to an albino ball python and then breeding back to the parents would look like.
Problems with this story...
1. How many different people did the angry balls go through and how many of those people knew what they actually were?
2. At SOME point in that line of people, someone was dishonest about them. (big surprise huh?)
3. Attempting to breed morphs into them is just asking for trouble. Unless you really know what you're doing, you will just screw up and muddy the genetics.
So Yea, if you're honest and smart and know what you're actually doing, then by all means, make a couple hybrids. I will admit, some are very cool looking. But, as you can clearly see from my story, those kinds of deals happen ALL the time ALL over. And that's the problem I have with hybrids and why I frown upon them.
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Re: Controversial Topic but I am curious
Not a fan of hybrids personally. I currently work with 2 hybrids at my local nature center which were bred by a local breeder. One snake is a black/everglades ratsnake hybrid and the other is a pine/bull hybrid.
The black/everglades rat is 2-3 years old and is about 2-3 feet long. Black rats get 5+ feet long with some thickness and everglades rats are about 3-4 feet and stay relatively thin. I have a feeling this snake will have stunted growth and stay short, I'll know in the next year. I do know everglades and yellow rat snakes breed in the wild because they cross territories in FL but they are probably also a lot closer genetically than black or everglades rat(this is speculation and do not know for sure).
The pine/bull is around the same age, maybe a little older, and is about 4 feet long with a sister which is 7 feet long at another nature center. This snake eats more than my cali king ever did, it is the biggest garbage can ever. I've heard people feed their pines and bulls 2-3 mice a week, this one has easily taken 5 and looked for more. I think it either has a super high metabolism or needs to grow and can't because the nature center wants limits on how much we feed the snakes(which I'm trying to change). This snake has already developed a cataract in its left eye and is half the size of its right eye which could be an incubation problem or a genetic defect.
It's very hard to discern how making hybrids will affect the snake physically, how we care for them, and what traits will be passed on or how new ones may arise.
