Quote Originally Posted by gregmonsta View Post
I think the British situation should be enough to end this topic.

It doesn't matter how much you label hybrids, etc, some idiot further down the line will not pay attention and will sell someone the wrong snake and will potentially ruin someone's breeding project.

There are far too many hybrids in the hobby as it is and as much as others oooh and aaah over them - none looks 'better' than either parent species.

Chronically ugly hybrids are all over the place. The latest I saw was an everglades ratsnake x bullsnake. What a kick in the gut to Everglades ratsnakes - pretty much gone in the wild. At least a yellow x everglades is a natural intergrade.

The reason why I don't have corns or royals is because of this obsession with fashion in that industry sector. There are so many thamnophis species to choose from and I seriously fail to see what could be gained from any kind of cross-breeding other than snakes that more or less look like some other snakes of that genus. A pointless exercise that would do nothing but harm the hobby that we cherish.
The only royal I have owned or will ever keep are the normals. Admittedly my first snake was a snow cornsnake. I hate all the inbreeding to get the new colour 'flavour of the month'. I'm not too against the more basic colour mutations, like amelanistic or anerythristic, but I still think that nature provides the most stunning patterns and colours all by itself. I am a purist too though, and don't like the idea of hybrids. Intergrades/hybrids that occur naturally I'm fine with but taking two snakes from completely different geological areas to breed them is just wrong to me.