Reptile & Amphibian Forums

anyone tried it? also has anyone bred dorbignyi to a western.

Hope not.

Why in the world would you even want to try it?

Agreed. Why would you? There are enough people polluting the genes pool of other types of snakes. Hogs need to stay pure. Any hybrids should be humanely euthenized IMO. Mike Bodner
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perhaps to investigate relationship???....i don't know any other reason

so it would work just nobody wants to try it though right?

just get one rly good breeder easterrn. and he probably would do it?

think in lousiana and texas and other parts of US that they do intermingle in and we probably already have some eastern genetics going around already...

Technically it can be done... I do not see why it cant be possible to produce the cross... As far as there being Eastern blood in Wester populations, even though it is not impossible, I still doubt it... IMO, If anything, a Western X Southern would be a more compatible cross if one wanted to create hybrids...

The question is, do we what it to be done... When it comes to hybrids, I personally do not care either way depending on cetain things... Is it a naturally occuring cross??? Will the cross enhance anything??? With certain species, I think it is ok to do so...

Many people will use the argument that the captive bloodlines will be tainted... There is no proof that pure species have been polluted... If anything, the other hybrid markets have proven this to not be the case at all... With all the king/corn cross breeding going on, you can still find pure corns and kings very easily...

We also need to ask the question, what is worse, breeding morphs or breeding hybrids??? If you ask me, it is not much different...
All you are doing is breeding to make something look different from the normal wild type...

It is also known to science that many existing species are actually the result of hybridization... Hybridization is like hitting a fast foward button on evolution...

My opinion is that no one in this hobby can be a purist... We propagate genes that would normally be fatal in the wild, we keep these snakes in our homes, we feed them what we feel is more convenient, we chose when to brumate them and wake them up, we pick their mates, and we incubate their eggs... Once these animals are in our collection there is no more natural selection... There is nothing natural about what we do as reptile keepers and breeders...

With that being said, in my opinion, Easterns and Westerns would not benefit from crossing the two so it is something I would never consider doing personally, but would never give someone a hard time if they did... There will always be a market for hybrids and no matter how much some of us are against it, it will still happen and there will always be a market for them....

n/p
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Thank you,
Kevin Rhodes

www.spiderhognose.com

http://www.freewebs.com/spreptile/index.htm
http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc314/lifesciences/?action=view¤t=09-09hognose001.jpg

Amen brother!

Here in Minnesota there are several areas where westerns and easterns can be found together. I have never seen anything that even remotely resembles a hybrid Heterodon though......

-Chris
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Christopher E. Smith
Contact
Captive Bred Herps
Wildlife Research & Consulting Services, LLC

they're just not lonely enough yet. ill try it out for real