Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I have been looking at some pictures in the photo gallery and I've noticed that some people have been cross-breeding different species of snake. Can you just cross-breed any kind of snake you want, and is it dangerous to the animal since certain genetic traits might not fit together properly? It is kind of a funny thought to me that some years from now snakes might not exist in the wild anymore and we will have all kinds of "mut" snakes, like dogs. I am just curious because I don't know much about genetics etc.

Thanks

Welcome to one of the more hotly debated topics on these forums. Crossbreeding is not dangerous to the snakes involved (unless for example; your kingsnake decides to eat the rat snake your trying to hybridise it with. It is not dangerous to the prodgeny.

But is it desireable?

To some folk it is a means of creating newer and possibly more beautiful snakes by combining the best attributes of both species involved.

To others it has proven to be a source of MUTTS. Snakes that look enough like one or the other parent that they can pass as a "pure" species (a term also contested). They see this as a danger to a limited gene pool as well as a danger to keeping animals that are rare in the wild, safe in a captive stock.

Pick your side. Personally I am against it.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I also disagree with cross-breeding however it is a hotly debated topic. Of course in the day and age of ultra-specifying animals into branches and branches of sub-species there will be some cross breeding in the wild. That's in the wild though, and even though occasionally higher forms of inter-species breeding occurs, it is my opinion that as a hobby we will reserve much more respect if we keep our breeding endeavors clean.
As per the dog comment, it pertains to a much more high profile drama, and that is looking for the latest colour morphology. I'd like to say that I disagree with this, but even I"m tempted to breed my high salmon coloured boa constrictor to another similar boa in an attempt to create something new and exciting. The profit would be nice too. The problem with this, as obviously seen in dogs, has already begun to show up as blizzard lizards are weak, hypo sliders have poor shells, and albino iguanas are sometimes blind.
As much as I enjoy playing the devil's advocate in these discussions, I think it is hard to imagine the reptile hobby in 100yrs as the dog hobby is today, and thus the issue is ignored.

Will I buy a pie-bald ball python? I'd love to if I had the dough, but do I agree with the breeding done with this and other traits? No.

Yup, I'm a hippocritt on this subject, but I don't think I"m the only one.