Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, ive had various garters for a wihle now, and i was wondering, can different species of garters be bred together?

Yes but they shouldn't be.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
www.captivebredforum.com

So it wouldnt be like hybridization where they get stronger?

It would be hybridization where they get weaker. The more distantly related the parental stocks are, the more likely to get problems.

Paul Hollander

Alright, thank you.

That's not what I learnt from my biology class, You know why the Royal family prefer to find the spouse for their heir from distance land, it's because if their heir marry too close to their own blood stock, it will be prone to pair up the bad genes and the same goes for the reptile, I am pretty sure the hybrid one is probably genetically superior than the pure form. Whether you going to cross them or not, it is going to happen naturally in the nature and that is part of the evolution. If we cross the reptile ourselves, we are just speeding up the evolution process, Imagine if we don't cross breed the canine, there won't be so many different types of dogs for us to enjoy today, they are all came down from their common ancestor which is the African wild dog. So be open mind.

SnakeSense

I learned this too, this is how the famine ended with the Burbank Potatoe. But if you crossed a great dane with a chawawa(sp)that would be pretty messed up.

Yes you can, and yes it sometimes happens in the wild. There are the occasional sightings of Butler's x Eastern Plains in some areas of Wisconsin where there are naturally occurring hybrid zones have developed between these two species complexes.

The F1 hybrids will show signs of hybrid vigor and provided the genetic make up of the individual species complexes has not geneticly drifted too far apart then all the offspring will be fertile and healthy.
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Adam
Hybrid Breeders Association