Quote Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny View Post
Jaguar! Yes, that is what I meant. So the 88% Irian Jaya Jaguar is a "designer mutt"?
Yup! Nothing wrong with mutts (aka intergrades), at least from my perspective, just as long as they are not sold as anything other than what they are.

They're certainly designer because you don't get an 88%er offspring until the third generation, so these really are long term projects.

One of the drawbacks to these intergrade jaguar projects is that, since all jags are heterozygotes, half of the offspring will simply be normal intergrades, and from the hobby's standpoint, most coastal x IJ or coastal x jungle intergrades are fairly undesirable. A big problem with the high % intergrades is that less-than-honest people may try to pass them off as pure varieties because of their less than desirable nature. This problem is particularly compounded as, with the exception of IJs and some other localities (papuans and such), we cannot get fresh wild-caught stock of carpet pythons. Australia has had a no-export law since the 70s, so for US and European carpet python keepers, unlabeled intergrades being mistaken for pure subspecies is an issue.

One of my favorite jaguar projects are the tiger jaguars. Both tigers and jaguars are for all intents and purposes seen as coastals in the US, so there is less of an intergrade issue with them. The latest tiger jaguars produced in this country are SUPER reduced in pattern and just look absolutely crazy, plus they're coastals (my favorite) to boot