Fred,



No offense taken. Discussing these things in a rational manner is good for everyone. And yes, that is the intended purpose of these forums. Unfortunately, most hybrid discussions quickly digress into ugly name-calling/mud-slinging matches (which is why I generally try to avoid them!). I'm glad this threat is going in a more positive direction.



The reason I originally responded to your post was twofold (possibly three). For one, you sited "money" as the primary reason people are producing crosses/hybrids. Secondly, you expressed strong opposition (understatement) to DxJ's; which IMHO are one of the most natural, generally accepted and most established X's in existence. I guess I've encountered so many of these "hybrids for the money" and "anti-DxJ" posts lately, that when I finally read yours I just had to respond. I apologize if I came across too harsh.



There are good arguments both for and against hybrids. It is not my intention to get into all of that here, as it is a long and complex topic. As I stated before, I can understand the reasoning behind those that are against some of the more extreme X's, and I used the Woma x Carpet as an example.



Womas & Carpets, other than being classified as "pythons," have absolutely nothing in common with one another. The differences between them are vast and quite obvious, so I really doubt that I need to make a list of them for anyone in this post. One could argue they are not meant to breed together based upon that alone.



Diamonds & Jungles, on the other hand, are very similar. Not only are they both "Morelia" (as you pointed out), but they are also both "Morelia spilota." Whether or not these are man-made classifications is irrelevant. They look nearly identical (other than pattern), their ranges overlap, they naturally interbreed, and they have perfectly normal hatch rates with healthy (viable) offspring. Again, I went over most of this in my previous post and I don't think it's necessary to spell out all of their similarities.



At the same time, but to a lesser degree, Chondros & Carpets are very similar snakes (much more so than Womas & Carpets). Carpets are semi-arboreal, they are found in similar habitats as Chondros, both have similar head structures, similar granular head scalation, both go thru an ontogenic color change, etc. And yes, there are of course many differences, too. Again, I'm not necessarily arguing that they should be crossed, but I'm not saying they shouldn't either.



Back to the Diamonds:

If pure Diamonds eventually did die out in this country (due to a lack of breeding success) -- I don't know about you, but I'd be more than happy to own an 88% Diamond X as opposed to having none at all. Most of the 88% X's look exactly like pure Diamonds anyway. Who's to say some of the original Diamonds imported into this country years ago didn't have some Coastal blood in them? ...would it matter? And again, stopping people from producing DxJ X's is not going to save the Diamond. They are completey unrelated issues. And whether the poor captive breeding success has to do with something that is physically wrong with the snakes themselves, or something we as breeders are doing wrong, really won't matter if there are none left in captivity.



The breeding success of the Diamond has been very sporadic. A few people have done pretty well with them, but at the same time I could name several reputable breeders/hobbyists that have lost large groups of them. Yes, we had a 2.1 group of adults a few years ago. I sold them before I ever had a change to try and breed them (yeah, that was stupid! ...I greatly miss them). I'll be getting more when I come across the right pair.



Sincerely,


-----
Will Leary

Reptilicus Reptiles

_____

[ Show Entire Thread ]