>>I have female milk phase thayeri king snake and a male sinaloan milk snake. Right now both are babies. I was wondering if the 2 could breed together when of age and size? I am new to all of this and was wondering if it is possible, and what the babies would be? I was told at a reptile show it can be done but I wonder what you all think.



Please don't do it, Steve. Study your two different animals closely and appreciate their natural beauty. Imagine the times when herpetologists have lifted a rock or walked through a field and seen snakes exactly like yours in their wild, natural habitat. Over time, I think--and hope--your recognition of their differences will grow, you'll respect their individual qualities, and decide not to muddle that by mixing them into something that's neither. Then you can find suitable matches for them and get the good feeling that comes from perpetuating something that developed in nature over eons. Then the babies you produce--like the ones you own now--will be direct links to animals in the wild.



Put another way: Are you glad you know the exact identity of your two snakes? Would it disappoint you to find out one or both of them is really a mix, and not the snake you believe it to be? That someone else may show you a genuine sinaloan, and you'd have to say, "well, mine's a mix, and not all of its siblings might have looked like this, and its babies may not look like this even if it were bred to a genuine sinaloan, but..." If it would bother you to have to explain that whenever you show your snakes, or to have someone reject yours as a mate for their sinaloan because yours is a mix, that's a clue to the fact that you don't really want to cross yours now. Every time someone hybridizes a pair of snakes they create mish-moshes ALL of whose progeny will be forever separated from the special and genuine character of the parents. You'll get different opinions here. I hope you'll consider this one.

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