Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is breeding a southern painted turtle with a red belly possible?

second question: Do southern painteds need a Nocturnal RED LIGHT?
www.AtlantaBeardedDragons.com

Nope! It's not possible.... They are totally of different genus....

Animals from different genera can hybridize if the two genera aren't too distantly related. In fact, genera are rather arbitrary groupings in many cases, not defined by reproductive compatibility but rather subjective ideas about "similarity".

That includes turtles. See the cool examples below:

Map turtle x Red-Eared Slider
http://www.theturtlesource.com/turtle_inventory.asp?cat=333&id=100200405

Blanding's x Wood Turtle
http://www.woodturtle.com/hybrid.html

Animals from different genus rarely have offspring together.... I've talked to turtle people and this sort of things do not happen in the wild, and rarely in captivity. there are no legitimate report that turtle from different genus have successfully reproduce. Maybe different species from the same genus that are pretty closely related. the only exception would be donkeys and horses which are not related, but through evolutionary flukes are able to have offspring together.

There is a legitimate report detailing wild hybrids produced by Blanding's and Wood turtles.

There's an old published account of a wild Spotted Turtle x Bog Turtle hybrid.

There are published reports of natural intergeneric rattlesnake crosses.

Hybrids between rat snakes and king snakes are common and not sterile.

There are plenty examples among snakes and turtles, and plenty more in other groups.

Intergeneric crosses might not be very common... but solar eclipses are not common either. However, they both exist.