don't forget mine, after all, I just BREED the things myself

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Posted by Fred Albury on November 29, 2002 at 23:41:58:

In Reply to: open to opinions, great then here's mine. posted by DeanAlessandrini on November 29, 2002 at 19:51:39:

:deep breath Dean...
:ok...

:Taking a federally listed threatened species and crossing it with ANYTHING is a bad idea. I'd really hate to take the chance of contaminating the genetics of these animals.

:Although you may personally be trustworthy,who is to say that a white snake that looks like an indigo won't be sold as a white indigos.

:cross your rats, corns and kings, but, please, for the love of all things sacred, please...leave the indigos out of it.

:PS...your rat snake is likely to end up shredded like aspen bedding!

:my 2 cents...bring it on pro-hybrid folks. I'm ready.
:KUMITE!
:

Eastern IndigoX Leucistic Ratsnake cross

Lets see..............

The *FIRST* thing that comes to mind is the high incidence of ophiopagus activity with drymarchon, basically, THEY EAT OTHER SNAKES. Given this dietary preference, putting a snake, leucistic texas ratsnake or not in a cage with an adult male Eastern Indigo would be like ringing a dinner bell. Unless Easterns are in full breeding mode, they will ALWAYS accept food items, snakes included.

The *SECOND* thing that comes to mind is what Dean eluded to, namely how ROUGH eastern males can be. Most female easterns so some physical scarring from their bout with breeding males, from mild to severe. RATSNAKES dont stand a chance.

The *THIRD* thing that come to mind is just this:Ever been to a reptile show? You see TONS of leucistic texas ratsnakes, *DIRT CHEAP*, why , in Gods name would you want to take something so common as to almost be a "disposable" snake and TRY to cross it with a snake that is:

a) Federally protected as threatened
b) *Rare* in captive collections
c) Hard to breed and get good eggs from, even for EXPERIENCED INDIGO BREEDERS(And haveing bred other colubrids doesnt qualify one as well versed in snake breeding when it comes to Indigos)
d) Very messy with a fast metabolism
e) argueably the most beautiful native serpent this country produces

So, you can clearly see, that this is a bad idea. for logical as well as moral ones.What you do wont affect MY eastern Indigo colony 1 iota, it is closed, but it could send a message to others to try the same thing. Heres an idea, why not cross the leucistic with a black sulawesi ratsnake, those things are simply awesome. well thats all for now.

Fred
AZTEC REPTILES

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