I'm so happy to see a sub-forum for hybrids and intergrades. For some reason hybrids seem to carry a stigma; it's not pure corn, so where does it fit in?
I received a gift of an adult gopher x corn in Red Deer this year. When I was invited into the breeder's snake room, he showed me corns, boas, womas, balls and then brought out another rubbermaid container. The first thing he did was apologize to me. Knowing my passion for corns, he thought he would offend me by showing me a hybrid. He told me gopher folks didn't like the fact he'd muddied the water so to speak, and he hoped I didn't feel the same way being a corn folk.
When I saw Ben, I feel instantly in love. He looked like a normal corn but 'different'. When I felt Ben's keeled scales and felt that gopher throaty trill as he slithered thru my hands, I knew this hybrid cross was something I could really project on.
When we took Ben to display at reptile shows, I couldn't believe the number of folks who approached me in disbelief that a cornaholic had something not 100% corn in their collection and was promoting hybrids.
Creamsicles have become accepted; jungle corns too but not as many are involved with that cross. I'm sure there are many other corn crossings which have been tried. Having a forum such as this truly allows those who have an interest in corn hybrids to feel comfortable discussing their projects.
Kudos to the administration for giving us this forum. It is a 'first' to my knowledge and I belong to several cornsnake based websites.
Now, here's Ben...my pride and joy.
In 2007 we are hoping to breed Ben with Casper, our ghost female, and Candy, our amel female. The purpose of the project is two fold. I want to see if the hatchlings (now 75% corn/ 25% gopher) will still retain the keeled scales and throaty trill of the gopher heritage. Ben's dam was normal corn; her hets if any are unknown. Since amel, hypo, and anery are some of the most common hets, I hoping to discover if Ben carries any of these genes recessively.
I've lots of plans for Ben in the future, but am just taking one year at a time.
Ruth
