Hi! One feature I would find useful in sorting through the Marketplace is a hybrid category. It would be hard to put in each group (where would you list an imperial Pueblan currently?) So 1 category where hybrid animals could be listed would be nice.
I understand that people have different criteria for defining a hybrid - some people believe all the designer morphs in carpet pythons make those animals hybrids. However, the carpet pythons can be listed by genes rather than species. That’s not currently an option for say, kingsnakes, where currently someone has listed a bunch of hybrid pastel kings as leonis with no mention of their hybrid nature.
If there was the option to place those animals in a hybrid category, shoppers like me could at least tell whether a breeder was purposefully mislisting animals. If the breeder had the option of a hybrid category and still didn’t use it, that tells me to avoid that breeder because they either lack knowledge about their animals or are dishonest. Right now there’s not a way to differentiate.
I assume you mean hybrid in the sense of say ratcorn or green tree pythob x carpet python, and not simply mixed subspecies (which fall into the “other” category) i think that would be a good idea to add a misc section for when a snake doesnt fall perfectly into any of the main groups. If you had a carpet x ball (i hear they exist) it would be difficult to choose whether to put them as a ball or a carpet, since they are neither as well as both.
Hi @gamcpherson, it’s a good topic. I agree that we have an opportunity for improvement here, since it’s unclear which of the “two” categories to put such an ad in. I haven’t yet come up with a good idea of where it would go. I guess ideally it’d go in both categories, but our system doesn’t permit that with categories.
The feature we have provided to deal with this is to add a Hybrid trait. So sellers can do what you are hoping for, which is indicate that they’re hybrids, if they are aware of this trait tag.
I sincerely wish all cross-species hybrids had their own section, but I know there’s a lot of nuance there. Breeding a pacific gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer annectans) to a bullsnake (P. c. sayi) isn’t technically, at this time in taxonomy, a cross species hybrid, but most folks would consider it a cross. Additionally, taxonomy in many groups is in flux due to new phylogenetic DNA sequencing results being published regularly and, thereby, re-classifying lots of different forms in the process. It’s tricky for sure.
I don’t have a good answer, but there is a lot of opportunity for misunderstanding among beginner hobbyists, which could lead to unintended hybridization and total loss of natural history lineage.
How does one properly care for a hybrid snake born from one snake native to a humid environment bred to a snake native to a desert environment? What are the temps and humidity ranges for that animal? Guesswork is the answer.
This is a sticky problem, I’m playing necromancer here and raising a dead thread. Not to cause controversy, but because I was trying to look at milksnakes, not x-rando-snakes and I honestly don’t know all the trade names of every hybrid, who does? I really wish I could propose a solution, but I have a bias that mightn’t fly.
I think having a hybrid tag for the ad, and listing the parent/ancestral species, would be a good option. That way, buyers can exclude hybrids from their search if they aren’t interested in them.
These should really be listed in the Other Colubrids category rather than either MS or KS.
Great question. Here is where observation of the parents becomes extremely important. Body structure, scales size, scale thickness… a whole load of factors need working together to find the ideal solution. If you want in depth answers, @thebeardedherper is the man for the job.
Some fora members, on other sites, get very upset when an old topic gets revived. I’m still learning the culture around here, that thread looks interesting, thanks.
Here we are a little different revive any thread you want to add too or ask questions on.
Our main goal is information retention, not letting the good stuff remain hidden in old posts.
1 post about a topic with 50 comments is much more valuable than 10 posts about the same topic with 5 comments each. This is why you will see us “merge” topics together now and again.
revive any thread you want to add too or ask questions on.