What do you think!!!!!

[gregmonsta]

Sorry, but deliberately going for hybrids is a waste of good bloodlines and a potential minefield for your area once you pass them on (regardless of if you label them as crosses or not).
Choose your one favourite species (or one with a wide variety of morph potential) and keep a colony of that.

[kibakiba]

I'm restraining myself from saying some rude things here, and it's very hard not to. Garter snakes aren't breeding machines for you to just make quick money off of. They need proper care and I doubt you'd give that with 40 or more snakes to take care of. There's also no way to put 40 snakes in one enclosure, that's abusive in my opinion. Don't turn garter snakes into what stupid corns and pythons are. No one wants hybrids here, if you do sell them make sure people KNOW what they are getting. Don't be stupid and lie, you'll ruin someones whole effort in keeping the genes clean. A lot of the snakes and morphs you put up sell for a great price at purebred, so what's the point of making a hybrid? I'm 99.999% sure they'll fetch a LOWER price than the purebred ones. Don't be stupid.

[ConcinusMan]

Whoa, take it easy Chantel. I think he got the point. He asked what we think and we did tell him. No need to call him stupid or a liar. Ultimately, it's his choice what he wants to do.

[kibakiba]

Yeah, I know. I was woken up by my macaw having a fit so I was a bit grumpy. I'm sorry for how rude I was and I didn't mean to be so mean about it. I take back what I said and I hope you'll accept my apology, Garterkid.

[GARTERKID]

Im realizing that i definetly worded this thread wrong and my intentions wearnt clear.What im trtying to say by m,e saying hybrids i meant like all these new garters being born.You have to cross breed to get them.I was confused im looking to make new morphs and i thought bfrom all the garters species i have i would have a good chance.Im not looking to sell the babies im not looking to make money i just enjoy breeding snakes.
Im just not to sure what you breed to what to get what im going to make a new thread on what i mean with all my questions.
thanks to all who responded even to the people whon were negative thankyou
GARTERKID

[guidofatherof5]

I'm sure you will get plenty of help with your question if you are going to be breeding within a species.
Meant with no offense but if it has anything to do with cross breeding between species you will probably hit a brick wall.

[ConcinusMan]

Wait a second, I think he's referring to combo morphs. Not sure what you mean when you say "all these new garters being born" but people are definitely not cross breeding species to get the morphs and you don't just "make" new morphs. All the morphs you see come from naturally occurring genetic mutations from the wild, or from mutations that spring up in captivity from time to time. Now, in captivity people combine certain mutations to create morphs that would have probably never existed in the wild.

Snows are a good example.

If you get yourself an albino red sided garter, you can breed it to your anerythristic red sided.(that is still not cross breeding since they are the same species) The babies will come out normal looking but carry the genes for both anery and albino. (called double hets) The double hets are then bred to each other (called inbreeding, not crossbreeding) and the chance is slim, but if any of their babies come out homozygous for albino AND anerythristic, then they are snows, a pure white snake with pink eyes. This has already been done, so they wouldn't be a new morph, but still a valuable one at around $200 a snake and of course, they were a new morph for that species, the first time they were created. Again, I want to make it clear that you don't just "make" new morphs. Snows were created by combining two naturally occurring mutations. You can only work with existing genes and try different combinations of those genes to come up with something different.

This year, probably for the first time, captive bred babies of a "new" blue morph of anerythristic Oregon Red Spotted garters will probably be available. But this morph really isn't new, it's only new to the captive trade and I didn't just create it out of thin air. I found this morph in the wild and now myself and two other breeders have pairs of them to breed. Since the intensity and shade of their blue color varies, we can keep the bluest babies and selectively breed them over generations and perhaps come up with snakes that are bluer than any I find in the wild.

We are already seeing red sided garters in captivity that have much more red on them than you would normally find in the wild. They were created through many generations of selective breeding but the gene for red always existed just like the genes for piebald rats (domestic coloration) always existed in wild rats. We just had to selectively breed them in captivity over generations to bring out the colors you see in domestic rats.

I hope this answers at least some of your questions.