Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I work solely with Balls as of now, but have been looking into boas recently, and am very intrigued...

In looking around, I'm seeing a lot of crosses between surinam, colombian, Nics, etc. I know w/ rosies and some other snakes, that's looked down upon a bit, but nobody cares whether Balls come from Togo or Ghana. So, my 3-fold question is:

1 - How acceptable/looked down upon is it to cross regional boas?
2 - Are certain regions more acceptable to cross (central/south america, etc.)?
3 - W/ crossing, do localities get watered down?

Thanks, all!
(these guys started coming out yesterday!)

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Jeremy Conrad
bpConnection
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...Can't...stop...must...get...more...balls...

I think if you're going to attempt a cross,some careful thought needs to be given as to the long term objectives of the project. how many of the offspring are you prepared to keep? if the project involves a genetic mutation,what provisions have you made for the inevitable "normals" that will be produced? many people are not interested in investing money in "crosses" that aren't carrying any specific genetic mutation,so it may be best to use a homozygous mutant,so that all the F1 offspring will at least be "hets" for the desired trait to be introduced. it's interesting to note,that while a fair percentage of the hobbyists questioned still think of cross-breeding as "mutt-production" many successful commercial breeders charge higher prices for crosses,almost as though it was a new morph! if the hobbyist does it,it's irresponsible "greed",if a big name breeder does it,it's hailed as the latest "morph-du-joir"!...just my two-cents,and something to think about.
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HarlequinBoa.com Captive born excellence through applied genetic theory...and,astute observations based on a keen sense of the sometimes painfully obvious

>1 - How acceptable/looked down upon is it to cross regional boas?

Some like it; some don't.

>2 - Are certain regions more acceptable to cross (central/south america, etc.)?

As ball pythons do not have subspecies, there is no question of crossing them. Boa constrictors have nearly a dozen subspecies.

I am with Rainshadow as to the benefits of some responsibility in breeding. The following is strictly my opinion.

I am very strongly opposed to crossing subspecies. These include Colombian x Argentine and Colombian x Guyana.

I am stongly opposed to crossing snakes that come from opposite ends of a subspecies range. This would include Sonoran x Colombian.

I am opposed to crossing snake that have a natural barrier that significantly impedes gene flow in the wild. This would include dwarf island forms x mainland individuals.

I am not bothered by Guyana x Suriname, Colombian x Panamanian, or Nicaraguan x Costa Rican. Both members of each cross are in the same subspecies, and the countries of origin are close. Guyana and Suriname are separated by a river for example.

YMMV.

>3 - W/ crossing, do localities get watered down?

Yes! Of course there is almost always some question of locality when animals pass through the international animal pipelines.

Paul Hollander

I'm looking at purchasing my first boas now, and I'd just assumed that one needed to stick with one sub-species...As I was looking through the classifieds, I was just surprised to see how many crosses were being sold. Thanks, all!
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Jeremy Conrad
bpConnection
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...Can't...stop...must...get...more...balls...

Your reply is a very reasonable position Paul. Something that is not found often enough when discussing this particular subject is reasonableness. I have been guilty of being unreasonable on this topic myself. Once a strict locality "Wacko" myself, I used to use many disparaging terms to refer to those crosses. However, few of us really know where our animals came from. None of our animals will ever be returned to the wild. We are not, at least at this juncture, making anything other than, as cool, as beautiful, or as interesting Boas as we possibly can. So the only reason to try to stay "pure" is really a personal preference. Some have very very strong opinions on this bordering on religious conviction, but it really remains just a personal preference. While some crossings still make the hair on the back of my neck bristle, others seem to be more interesting to me and therefore, less objectionable. So we all have an opinion on this topic that varies slightly from everyone else. Some have absolutely no compunction about breeding anything to anything while a few think that nobody really has locality pure animals but themselves, therefore everyone else's animals must be crosses. I fall somewhere between those positions. I'll do my best to remain reasonable and not go down that name calling road that has, in the past, shown my own inability to be reasonable. While your stand on what is ok to cross and what is not, does not agree exactly with mine, I appreciate your posting it and understand the logic behind it. Thanks Paul!