Quote Originally Posted by Stefan-A View Post
I, personally, am sort of a purist when it comes to these things and I prefer (although I don't require) that snakes come from the same population.
What do you mean same population?

Haha, a little overload of info/vocabulary. But, I think I'm understanding a little bit of it. I'm not very strong in the basic genetics, so maybe I need a little more explanation... Sorry.

Like in dogs, a golden retriever and a rottweiler are the same species, but different breeds. So in the equivalent of garters, a T. radix and a T. sirtalis are the same species but different subspecies?

Do albino garters occur naturally in the wild? And how do you know which garters bred would produce albino's or not? (I'm just using albino as an example...)

In this particular case, the locality is of special importance, because the Nebraska albino is not "compatible" with the Iowa albino morph of the same species, because the mutation that causes albinism in them occur in different genes, so mixing them won't produce more albinos.
How do you know that they aren't compatible?