Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm planning to do a king/milk hybrid, and it will be my first time breeding colubrids, or any snake for that matter.

I've read it's best not to cross siblings whenever possible. So to produce the double hets for my project, I thought of starting with two pairs of parents. That way I'll have two sets of double hets from different parents to cross.

Let's say I'm crossing a Cal King to a Sinaloan, for example. If I buy a male and female Cal King from the same clutch, and a pair of Sinaloans from the same clutch, I'd have two pairs. My question is, since the respective male and female in each of the breeding pairs would be siblings, would it be pointless to have two pairs?

In other words, unless I start with 4 totally unrelated snakes, is it only necessary to have one pair of parents? And what about crossing double hets from the same parents, but different clutches? Are they still considered siblings?

It seems to me that people are crossing siblings all the time, but I could be wrong.

Thanks in advance for your help. Some of the hybrids that bluerosy, mesozoic and others have created are amazing. Hybrids seem more fun, as you never know what you'll get, and sometimes the results are stunning.

actually yes many people do breed siblings together as well as breeding siblings back to the prospective parents. this is called line breeding when you take siblings and cross back to the parents or to other clutch mates.
line breeding is what is used to create a stronger "look" to a snake as well as prove out hets, by look i mean getting better stripes, wider stripes or paler ghosts(my project in 3 years) it is best to go with unrelated if possible(or so many say) you could prove out bad genes as well as good ones its a thought to ponder
adam jeffery
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hybrid breeders association
0.0.32 baby corns
2 leo eggs-due sept
0.1. normal corn het hypo,anery
1.0. snow corn het hypo,anery,amel
1.0. amel corn unknown hets(4ft 8inch long)
1.0 sinacorn
1.1 kenyan sand boas
0.1 mbk
0.1 albino nelsons
0.2 normal leo geckos
1.0 blizzard leo gecko
0.0.1 3 lined mud turtle

Thanks for the reply. Okay, here's another question.

Once again, let's say we're crossing a king to a milk. If the subspecies of king you're breeding is known to grow only 30" in length, and the milk subspecies is known to grow up to 60" or sometimes even 70", is this a reason not to breed them?

I would guess that it's not a problem, and that the offspring wouldn't grow quite as large as the larger parent. Then again, maybe these two subspecies are so different in size that they shouldn't be bred to each other.

answered on another forum for you
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hybrid breeders association
0.0.32 baby corns
2 leo eggs-due sept
0.1. normal corn het hypo,anery
1.0. snow corn het hypo,anery,amel
1.0. amel corn unknown hets(4ft 8inch long)
1.0 sinacorn
1.1 kenyan sand boas
0.1 mbk
0.1 albino nelsons
0.2 normal leo geckos
1.0 blizzard leo gecko
0.0.1 3 lined mud turtle