The bug has officially bit...

[sullitf]

So I got my first BP last May and was just looking to have a pet. Always wanted a snake and decided it was about time to get one. Shes a normal, and extremely friendly I might add. She's never stuck at me or anyone else for that matter, even when catching her off guard or during shed.

Anyway, I have finally been bitten by the bug and am starting to come up with breeding plans. I'll be in college until May of next year, and would like to get my first breeding season under way after I graduate. I really am looking at it like more of a long-term hobby, not actively planning on turning it into any kind of full-time business (yet ). I want to start planning now, so I can figure out what I will need, what kinds of snakes I want to start out with, and what types of breeding projects I'd like to have going.

I'd love some advice on a starting point, as you all know it can be a bit overwhelming at first when looking at all the different morphs and crosses being done. I've found that I tend to like the brightly colored morphs (bees, lesser mojaves, pastels, butters, etc.) as well as the white (full or partial) snakes like pieds and leusistics. I think as of now my long term goal would really be to breed some BELs and interesting pieds combos like a clown pied. I also think albinos are extremely interesting, and the combos that have been made with those are really amazing looking animals IMO.




1. If I were to buy 3-5 more snakes to go along with the normal female I have now, what would get me going in the right direction for my goals? Here is a the most recent tentative list I have come up with: 1 lesser platinum, 1 mojave, 1 pastel, 1-2 normals

2. I've been reading up quite a bit on the genetics and various morphs, but there's still one big question I have. Is there a more "tactically" correct choice when picking the sexes for various morphs I buy? I.e. I am really considering a lesser platinum, but that would take up a decent amount of the budget and may mean getting fewer snakes or a few het normals. Would it be smarter to get a male lesser and female normal or het to breed it with? My thinking is this would allow me to breed the lesser with multiple females in one season, hopefully creating a few interesting combos or a few more lessers.



I really want to think out my plan well and make sure I am going in the right direction, so any advice would be hugely appreciated! I'd really like to set it up to where I could work towards my ultimate goal while also being able to make interesting mini-projects along the way, say trying to breed a few super bees or similar. I'm not necessarily wanting to bang out a clutch of BELs and pieds in two seasons, so if I can plan out a group of interesting (and maybe profitable ) clutches that ultimately let me try for some BELs and pieds 5 or 10 seasons down the road I'd be totally happy with that!

[OhhWatALoser]

sounds like you got the right idea, advise i will give you, first the thing you have to tell everyone, don't expect to make money, statistics is against you just so you know. there was a poll about this and something like 80% of us (including me) still havn't broke even since we started this hobby lol. but I still do it because I love it.

2 pointers I can give you, buy your females first, if you buying for first group of babies get all females, theres no need to have a male doing nothing for a year and a half when It could of been a female growing up. get your males after your females had a year or so to grow up.

also just something to think about with recessives, If your recessive morph is female and your co-dom is male, you can produce "co-dom+het" male and breed it back to mom in less than a year.

if the recessive morph is male and your co-dom is female, you would have to produce a "co-dom+het" female and wait 2-3 years for her to grow up to breed her.

recessive females will speed up your end result, if your result is a co-dom+recessive

[sullitf]

Thanks! Thats exactly the kind of advice I'm looking for!

Just wanted to say that I don't actually expect it to make me any money once I start breeding. I really do look at it like a hobby, so anytime I can sell a few babies off along the way is really just a bonus.

I totally see what you're saying about the benefits of the breeding females being recessives. Right now I had been looking at lessers, mojaves, and pastels which are all co-dominant as far as I can tell. I would also like to get a pied and albino at one point. Would it be better to get one or two males that are either lesser, mojave, or pastels and get 3 recessive females? If so, what would be good recessive morphs to go with? Maybe I should get a few females that are either homo or het for pied and albino, so I can start getting getting co-dom+het combos that could later lead to something like an albino mojave?

[Evilme5229]

My situation is very similar to you. I always wanted a bp, but for me I couldn't get past feeding a live animal to another animal. However, I ofcourse adventually got past it (even though I do not like any mouse or rat that is any other color than white). lol.

I started out with a normal female. I than have a female pastel. Just so happens, I was able to get a male pewter. I still think hes my best investiment yet to my collection. A male pewter to both my girls can bring interesting results. Pewter to normal I will get cinnys, norms, pastels. Pewter to Pastel I can get super pastels, pastels, and cinnys. Its a win win in my mind.

Right now I have my male ghost breeding with one of my normal females. I have heard a lot of ppl saying the want to breed BELs. They are extremely beautiful. I have a lot of projects that soon will be underway this coming fall. I'm still waiting on my cinny (so I can try to get a super cinny with my pewter) and a pair of lessers (since I really want BELs too).

I have to agree with everyone that do not enter this hobby thinking your going to make a profit off it. I think alot of ppl here will agree that if you break even you have won. I think that my biggest downfall was that I saw too much that I liked. I only concentrated on what you can get if you breed the different morphs and forgot what I originally planned.

I planned on having maybe 3 snakes that I would breed and than sell the babies to essentially pay for my collection of 3 snakes. If I found a morph that I thought would be worth keeping than I would. However, the "bug" got to me and I have been collecting ever since. I right now have 9 snakes and two more I have deposits on. I am waiting till my distributor has his clutches for me to get my lesser pair and my female cinny. So, I think alot of it is control. lmao. As it is, last week I built my first rack and now have to think about plans of another one. :-) I wish you luck.

Sincerely,
Shannon

[merdcme]

buy homo co-dom males( supers) and some ressesive females and your in business if your just doing it as a hobby then its just about your prefference as to what you want to get.

[sullitf]

Hadn't even thought about pewters! I may have to get a pewter male rather than a pastel male just for the extra cinny possibilities!

I think at this point my plan is getting modified to include the female normal I already have, along with an albino female and het pied female, and maybe another normal female to boot. Combine them with a lesser and pewter male and I could get started with a some interesting clutches the first few seasons!

[Jason Bowden]

There is no cure!
I'd stay away from more normals because youm will get more of those from your breedings.
Keep us updated.

[kc261]

It seems like you are most interested in BELs, pieds, albinos, and combos related to those.

Depending on your budget, I'd start out with 3 females: a het or visual pied, het or visual albino, and take your pick of the "het BEL" morphs.

A year later, I'd add 3 males to match. Again depending on your budget, you can make it a little more interesting by purchasing something like a pastel lesser, rather than just a lesser for the male het BEL. Also, if you got visual pied & albino females, you could get something like spider het pied, and still have good odds on the clutch. Another alternative, if you don't mind waiting to hatch out visual pieds (or albinos), would be to just use the same male for all 3 females. Going back to the pastel lesser example, this would give you the possibility of hatching out pieds, pastel pieds, lesser pieds, and pastel lesser pieds (and the same for albinos) in your 2nd year of breeding, if you get lucky and get a male pastel lesser het pied (albino) the first year and he cooperates and grows fast and breeds young.

[sullitf]

I'll stay away from as many normals as budget will allow Looking like I will try to get my hands on a nice albino female and het pied female in the next 6 months and give them a year to grow. Maybe next spring I'll start getting the males, a pewter and a pastel or super pastel would be really nice I think.


The albino and het pied females would really be where I'd like to see some nice clutches from. I don't think I'll be able to afford any other nice recessive females, but I figure if I had 2 or 3 normal females for the males to breed with I could at least end up with a few more pewters, pastels, and cinnys.

[nevohraalnavnoj]

I'd recommend a double co-dom male, and an array of single co-dom or normal females. EG, bumblebee male and some pastel, cinnie, fire, yb, normal females. That way in your first year breeding you could take a shot at triple morphs.

JonV