Back again to harp on about the abysmal classifications of hybrids on the marketplace. With the rise in popularity of keeping colubrids, especially with beginners, I’ve noticed an increase in interspecies hybrids being listed as corns, despite the fact that some of these animals contain as little as 25% (edit: actually 6.25% is the lowest listed rn) or less corn snake blood.
This doesn’t seem to be an issue with any other Colubrid category, despite those animals being involved in some of these hybrids. Milksnakes listed as hybrids in that category are just two different genuses crossed, same with Kingsnakes, but when it comes to corns, it’s not just Pantherophis crosses but crosses with Lampropeltis & Pituophis as well. It’s quite obvious that the sellers of these animals are listing them disingenuously as corns to take advantage of the fact that this category is more popular, even when the animal is 50% or more one of the other species. I’ve seen animals that are 75%+ Lampropeltis listed.
I’d like to see the guidelines updated to require that these animals be listed as what they are, “Other Colubrids”.
I agree that it is a common issue, especially within colubrids, that sellers list hybrids as a single specific species. MorphMarket’s rules for selling do note that ad details must be accurate. If you come across an ad that is advertising a cornXkingXmilkXbullXpineXgopher as a corn snake, then please report the ad. Hybrids amongst colubrids should be placed in the other colubrids category. Anywhere else would be an inaccurate ad listing, which is reportable. This would also apply to hybrids within pythons, boas, etc. needing to be placed within their appropriate “other” category as well.
Alright, gonna have to tag in @eaglereptiles and ask, is this still the case? I flagged a bunch of corn x king & corn x milk hybrids, only to get this email in return:
That’s a bummer if that’s the case. If the way that email reads is how hybrids are encouraged to be categorized now, it seems that is only making it more difficult to connect buyers to sellers with the hybrid animal they’re after. If someone is looking to buy a milkXkingXcorn, they’ll need to look in the milk snake category, kingsnake category, corn snake category, and other colubrids category depending where different sellers opt to list their ads. Whereas if it were enforced for them to be listed under one catch-all “other colubrids” category, then the buyer would only really need to check the other colubrids category.
Honestly I’m hoping this particular CS reply was misinformed, as the vast majority of breeders offering hybrids actually do list them in the “Other Colubrids” section and these listings are outliers. It’s just been recently that a few people have popped up in the Corns category. In one case it may be an error, but there’s another where that particular breeder has listed anything with even a little corn blood as a corn. I suspect it’s because it’s a much larger and more visible category, and therefore more people will see their ads.
