Hello from South Africa!

[guidofatherof5]

There is no valid reason to create hybrids. NONE.
The other forum post you quoted is very disturbing.

[@ndy]

There is no valid reason to create hybrids. NONE.
The other forum post you quoted is very disturbing.

Steve I agree 100%

I would rather import pure breeds from Europe than support the local guy that tries to sell a hybrid and now he is even going further by breeding the hybrids together.

We already have so little species available here why go and mess it up by creating hybrids.

[chris-uk]

Steve I agree 100%

I would rather import pure breeds from Europe than support the local guy that tries to sell a hybrid and now he is even going further by breeding the hybrids together.

We already have so little species available here why go and mess it up by creating hybrids.

This guy is messing up some of the few breeding pairs of garters in SA - and there's no reason for it, he's got male and female of each. I'd have given him the benefit of the doubt if he'd ended up with accidental hybrids because he'd thought that he was keeping different species of the same sex together and it turned out he'd got the sexing wrong. But there's no reason to do what he says in that post.

[guidofatherof5]

My words for him on that forum would probably get me banned from it. Probably good I'm not a member or even know which forum he's on.

[ConcinusMan]

""But I feel due to the lack of variance Thamnophis species available in this country of ours I personally feel no harm."

To the contrary, the "lack of variance" and the fact that not many garters are available is the very reason why he shouldn't be making hybrids.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

The stupidity!....

[Invisible Snake]

Hey @ndy, because of the rarity of garters in SA, are they expensive?

[ConcinusMan]

I would think that rarity by itself does not imply value. High demand and low supply combined is what makes a commodity valuable.

[@ndy]

Hey @ndy, because of the rarity of garters in SA, are they expensive?

I don't know how they compare to Corns and Kings in the rest of the world, but they are a bit more expensive here than some Kings and most Corns.

On average a Normal Baby T. marcianus sells for anything between $25 and $65, Albino's are very rare here the sell for $100 here in SA.

I only know of 5 other People here in SA that keep and Breed Checkered Garters only 2 have Albino's

We are trying to make the younger keepers more aware of Garters here, every store sells them Corns and Kings, I personally keep Kings as well but I enjoy my garters more than the Kings. I just wish we had more species of Garters available, I have 5 more baby checkered garters on order for mid November, and 1 will be an albino.

[ConcinusMan]

Wow. Albino checkereds are practically free here. Perhaps $30 USD at the most. I think it was last year, so many were produced that people had a hard time selling them even at $20.