At the risk of making the purists angry, I would like to respond to this hybrid discussion. In the appearance department, I agree with the others in the post. I dont think this hybrid will look good, but thats only because Ive seen others that dont. However, anyone who has made hybrids in the past knows that practically every one of them look different, so who knows.

The main point I would like to adress though is the dilution of the "pure" genes and not being able to distinguish "pure" from "hybrid". Now I am a veterinarian who has been breeding snakes for 20 years, so I am as scientifically minded as anyone else. My issue is this: there are VERY FEW people in this country who can provide you with documentation that their line of snakes is "pure". I have some snakes that I sell as "pure" thayeri and ruthveni. Do I know with 100% certainty that they are pure? Of course not, I bought them from someone else. Were they sure? Of course not, they bought them from someone else. And so forth and so on. Even those who can provide documentation all the way back to the original wild caught specimen don't know with 100% certainty. Interspecies breeding happens all the time in the wild, so how do you know that wild caught specimen doesnt contain "tainted" blood? The point is this hobby has been around for so long now with no genetic bloodline registry, noone knows for sure that the snakes they own are 100% "pure". If you have an approved snake reintroduction project that intends to release animals into the wild, then I think you should be put in jail if you purposely hybirdize your animals.

But since none of us do that, there are only 2 factors that should dictate whether or not you do it. # 1 you have an interest in it. # 2 can you sell them. You dont want to produce animals that noone wants and eventually have to be euthanized. Im sure there will be plenty of opposition to what Im saying, there always has been. But I welcome the debate.

If you dont get anything else from this, then get this. Be HONEST. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, represent your animals for what they are. If you know they are hybrids, represent them as such.

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