im fairly new to the ball python world but i see that there are some hybrid pythons on the market. they have been tagged with the term of “BURMBALL PYTHONS” that is fine by me BUT in my world of angling if fish hybridize they can not breed with themselves or their parentage, would this be the same as hybrid pythons? now i know there will be people who oppose this hybridization I’m in two minds myself but could this be a sign of fantastic creations for the future or a waste of time? I’m keen on other people’s opinions.
No they usually produce fertile young. Sometimes when you breed two different species they can have lower then normal fertility,(more slugs) but the offspring can usually breed to whichever of the 2 species, I have seen 3/4 ball 1/4 blood and so on. I used to do corn x kings myself (junglecorns) and I did get less then normal fertile eggs, but the babies were very healthy. A lot of people have problems with hybrids, but it happens and will keep happening. Look what we do to dogs (any breed x poodle) Unless you are a purist and like just wild type, locality type animals I don’t see a problem with it. They are hopefully always in captivity as our pets, so get what you like. The problem that I see is in honesty, you have to know and tell potential buyers what is in it! Of course that applies to morphs of the same species as well.
thank you for your reply, you are quite right in what you say. i didn’t think about dogs ofcourse and their combinations and even stranger breed names… i won’t mention any and ofcourse any other living creature that gets crossed. do i agree with hybridization yes i do, i think it could lead to a very interesting future indeed i mean how long can we keep crossing different traits in the ball python world. any im off to take my jackalabradooble (oops sorry did i say that) out for a walk. regards Shaun.
I will caveat this that it is dependent on the species involved. Bloodballs, Angryballs, and Burmballs all seem to maintain fertility but, if memory serves me, the Wall and the Carpall both have fertility issues. There are also fertility issues with Carpondros
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Just to nitpick ( )… The dog breed analogy is not really accurate because all dogs are the same species. Dog/wolf hybrids or Coydogs would be more accurate
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I fully agree with this, but will also add on that the honesty issue extends to blatant ignorance as well. Once percentages become higher toward one of the parents it becomes harder and harder to just know by phenotype that something is pure. So one day a guy gets sick of his 88% ball x blood cross and throws in on Craigslist. And then the person who gets it from him later also gets sick of it and turns it over to a rescue without any information and so the rescue just calls it a ball and then someone picks it up from the rescue because it looks a little different and they want to breed it and suddenly you have a hybrid in the gene pool
We have seen this with other species (looking at you alterna… )
On top of that, add on that some of the species involved are from drastically different areas and the care for the species may vary as well.