Normals

[Jay_Bunny]

So my male is a really light normal (sold as a hypo). I am also caring for a really dark normal (rescue) that I believe to be a female. I plan on having her sexed but judging by her tail, I put my money on a female. The female is my friend's snake. She rescued her from someone on CL and said that in payment for me taking care of her, I could breed her once she was out of QT. Well, all is well. She eats like a machine and is probably around 400g by now, and is 5 years old. (have not weighed her in a few weeks). The only male I have is my light normal.

Would it be worth it to breed these two?

[Blue Apple Herps]

Me personally? No. For me its too much effort to deal with a clutch of normals. Between feeding them, housing them, etc its too much time invested for too little return. I don't even own a normal - only time I produce them is from het to het breedings.

But its up to you. If you're willing to put in the time and effort then go for it! But I wouldn't breed them just for the sake of breeding them.

[Jay_Bunny]

Is there a chance either of them are het for something?

[DJ_Bizarre]

there is always a chance of them being het for something, but without any visual markers, the chances of them having matching het genes are slim to none. For example, one could be a het albino and one could be a het axanthic, even if those genes were passed on, nothing visual would come out of it so you still wont know for at least 2 breeding seasons to try and rule out any genetics. In my opinion, it isnt worth breeding them for a slim chance of them having something special, because in all actuallity, they could just both be normals in the end anyway.

[aalomon]

I disagree. With corns, especially rescues or ones with unknown origins, there is a relatively good chance of them carrying genes (Ive had it happen in 4 out of 5 of my pairings). Id try it once just to see. It would also be a good learning experience if you plan on breeding corns in the future. Better to lose a clutch of normals than something higher end!

[Jay_Bunny]

Well here are the two.

Male



Female

[joepythons]

If it were me i would give it a try.

[mainbutter]

Herpetoculture -

n. 1) the captive care and propogation of amphibians and reptiles

Breeding reptiles, even if they are "just normals", and raising their young is what herpetoculture is all about. Morph breeding and money may have built this hobby and spread it to many new people, but don't let anyone tell you that it's not worth breeding your two snakes because you're not standing to gain financially. I'd say breed 'em.

With corns, there is a VERY good chance they are het for some, or multiple traits. Corn recessive morphs are in abundance, and when you breed two "normals", you really never know what will pop out. Personally I'd rather breed two normals together than two amels.

Spend some money, enjoy your animals, and call it a good day.

[Jay_Bunny]

I'm going to breed them. I was planning on breeding her later when I got a morph male but I want to see if anything would come from a breeding like this. Thanks everyone.

[Blue Apple Herps]

Morph breeding and money may have built this hobby and spread it to many new people, but don't let anyone tell you that it's not worth breeding your two snakes because you're not standing to gain financially. I'd say breed 'em.

I wasn't meaning to say it wasn't worth it, just at least to some. Just offering my opinion. And just to play a little devil's advocate, there's the responsibility of properly housing them, feeding them, and finding them homes. Finding homes for normal corns is tough - you almost have to give them away; especially with morph prices being so low.

You're absolutely correct that from a purely hobbyist part, breeding normals can be a very worthwhile experience, just so long as the person knows what they're getting into before hand.

To the OP: there's a good chance of them being het for something. Amel, anery, and hypo are all fairly common in the gene pool of corns.

I've had amel, anery A, charcoal, and hypo all pop up in my collection with pairings that had no history of any of those genes in the lines they came from. They were all floating around and sheer luck ended up pairing hets together.