what about mixing?

[Zephyr]

Originally Posted by adamanteus

Absolutely, Lori. We're all different and have different tastes and opinions. Some are right (mine), some are wrong (everyone elses)!
Of course I'm kidding. But I do prefer my snakes 'as nature intended'.

With a little human interference. AKA flame garters. :P
Although these do seem somewhat natural.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I don't see anything wrong with hybrids as long as they are honestly represented as so... integrades between subspecies and closely related species or species that overlap in range are more common than many people think.

[drache]

as far as I recall flame garters are naturally occurring morphs
morphs and intergrades do occur in nature, but much of what corn snake breeders do wouldn't - not to mention the crossing of different species
I guess it's (some) humans' nature to want to create labradoodles and maltotweilers
I am generally more impressed with the creations of nature than with those of humans, although micro chips are pretty cool and I think that once they make robot snakes, they should feel free to go hogwild with cartoonish patterns, just like they do with kids' jammies
that being said, I do get a bit creeped by folks obsessed with the pure blood line thing
the "purer" a blood line, the more likely it will end up with genetic defects, so in the case of a very small population, intergrading may be a genetic boon

[Stefan-A]

Originally Posted by drache

as far as I recall flame garters are naturally occurring morphs

IIRC, flames (with varying amounts of red of course) even occur reasonably often in certain populations, but I could be wrong.

morphs and intergrades do occur in nature, but much of what corn snake breeders do wouldn't

It would be extremely unlikely that an anerythristic and amelanistic corn would meet in the wild and produce offspring het for both and that those offspring would then get together and produce ghosts, yes. But human intervention is limited to create favorable conditions. We're still far from direct genetic engineering.