General guide lines on breeding snakes.

[jasuncle1972]

Hello everybody. I've got a question about breeding snakes. From what i've gathered from this site and others, when breeding is done, it's done to another of the same species( no crosses in subspecies which would result in hybrids). Is this correct?, and any other input.

[KITKAT]

Originally Posted by jasuncle1972

Hello everybody. I've got a question about breeding snakes. From what i've gathered from this site and others, when breeding is done, it's done to another of the same species( no crosses in subspecies which would result in hybrids). Is this correct?, and any other input.

Yeah, that is pretty much true. There are a very few exceptions in the snake keeping world, such as Jungle Corns, but overall, hybridization is not encouraged.

[GarterGuy]

Have to agree.......usually when breeding you want to try and keep a certain subspecies or colour variant "pure" so that it keeps all of the characteristics that make it special to begin with. There are a lot of differing opinions on this though. A lot of the "designer" morphs that you see out there are from crossing snakes that wouldn't normally cross in nature. I guess it's really personal preference, but one thing that is a definite is that if you do a crossing, you must open about letting anyone know that it is a cross before selling any offspring to anyone.

Roy

[GarterGirl]

I don't really know
that much about breeding
but I do know that when
you cross snakes that aren't
crossed in nature, they
don't live as long as
a snake normally
would.

I got a garter snake once
that was a very light pink.
Its parents were 2 different
species of garter snake.
They were crossed.
Just a few weeks after
we got it, it died.
Its name was Salsa.
I had gotten very
fond of that snake
while it was alive.
It was a very sad death.

[adamanteus]

Personally I think it's quite important that we breed true to species. Wild habitat is shrinking at an alarming rate, not just for Garters but for many animal species. My fear is that one day there will be no wild spaces left, and all we'll have left of a once diverse reptile fauna is a "Creamsicle Corn". In our own small way we can help by breeding true to type.

[LushLulu85]

i was made to believe that crossing two different species the offspring tends to pick up the worst traits from both parents therefore giving more of a chance of getting serious illnesses

[adamanteus]

I've thought about it long and hard and came to this reasoned conclusion..... It just ain't right, is it?

[LushLulu85]

Nope!!!!!!!!!

[GarterGuy]

I think what it comes down to is that snakes are wild animals that we keep in captivity, they're not domesticated like cats or dogs or chickens and such. As per, it's best to keep them as close to their "wild type" as possible, just out of respect for the animals. Kind of boils down to, just because you CAN do it doesn't mean that you SHOULD. Just my opinion though.

Roy

[drache]

Originally Posted by GarterGuy

just because you CAN do it doesn't mean that you SHOULD

my favourite line from Jurassic Park says something like that
people get so excited about being able to do something, they don't stop to think whether its' a good idea
it's a very kid-like thing
I think it's how I started a bunch of unhealthy practices as a teenager