I don't have an opinion on which subspecies your hatchling would claim. Both subspecies seem to throw hatchlings that are too darned variable. In my area, variation ranges between triunguis and major, or all-the-way, either way.

Some of the animals here look like relatively colorful triunguis with four toes (too common a characteristic here to dismiss as chance in my opinion). Some male animals scream hybrid between the two subspecies, although I've seen two males in the captial city that looked 100% major. At the same time, many animals look 100% triunguis (except for that common fourth toe). I can't say whether any of this applies to the hatchlings here, since I haven't seen enough.

Pretty much all the box turtles currently in my care are triunguis from elsewhere, brought without request by people who "rescued" them from roads or decided they no longer wanted them. And a few of the offspring they've had. My most colorful male (no pictures uploaded) was brought to me locally, and is a likely hybrid between triunguis and major.

A funny question is, if one has animals from a region such as mine, how should you breed them? With one another (other hybrids) only? They're already hybrids, so to speak. So do you not breed them at all? Or do you turn them into 75% hybrids by breeding them with full triunguis or full major (as opposed to 50% equal major/triunguis)? Do you sell them as "less favorable" hybrids, even though they're as natural as full triunguis or major (even more natural than full triunguis x triunguis from, say, north LA x east TX)? Southeast Louisiana box turtles (triunguis with presumable major influence and vice versa) are on average prettier than east Texas box turtles (where populations are currently commercially collected). I'd bet as people figure out genetic routes to prettier colors and patterns, concern over hybridization will diminish. We can already find carolina/ornata crosses in the trade. It's a curious delimma, and we can only wonder where the ethical lines of blood-mixing will stand in the future of box turtle breeding. Just the same, for the sake of your current purposes, I hope your hatchling is full major. Ben

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]