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The most likely advantage of crossbreeding, besides marketability of a new variety, is hybrid vigor. This occurs in animals that result from crosses that are distantly related, such as intergrades or hybrids or even outcrosses of very different lines within the same species- they show improved general vitality, size, growth rate, feed efficiency, resistance to illness, etc. This is well established and these crosses, as long as they are not of such divergent species that the genes are completely incompatable, will actually result in stronger, not weaker offspring.
It is inbreeding - of closely related animals, through many generations, that results in weaker offspring, since it allows recessive genes for defects and weaknesses to be expressed. Of course this inbreeding is often what hybrid breeders do early in the development of a strain, after the initial cross, because they have so few animals to work with.
Where hybrids will result in less fit offspring is when the genes are so different that the offspring are sterile. Many snake species have such divergent types, physiologies and likely genetic material that crosses would not be possible - like colubrids with boids - without using gene splicing methods to introduce bits of genetic material- so wouldn't likely even be possible to get a corn/ball python cross. I think it comes back to personal preferences - breeders will produce what they like.
mary v.
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Mary VanderKop
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