Looking for a female investment for a spider bp

[clairlevee]

I've been combing through similar threads and decided to make my own here...
I have a really sweet 1.5 year old male Spider bp and my boyfriend has recently decided to enter the ball python world.
We decided it makes sense to invest in a nice baby female with compatible genes because we hope to breed after graduating.
Additionally, I've agreed to go in half. (Christmas present)

Even so, I think we top out around $300 total. We do live in Texas and have access to some absolutely GREAT expos and wonderful local breeders, so I think we can do a lot with that.
From what I've seen we have a good deal of options. Ideally I think we want to try and get a double gene, but we aren't totally locked into that.

He's really interested in pewters, particularly the black pewters. (Hello black widow?)
I love pastaves *cries at price tag*
I also think a pastel het [something-cool] would be a neat idea

(We've eliminated butters, cinnamons, cinnamon pewters, enchis, pastels, and pinstripes)


We are going to the Arlington expo in February, but he's got the bug bad and is searching the internet for suitable BPs.
I'm not sure if I should encourage him to wait until then or not. I feel like we saw amazing deals in San Antonio recently, plus we met a lot of really helpful, friendly breeders that I feel would have been happy to make a deal with us, especially on the last day of the show!

So we like pewters and black pewters for certain.
Any other semi-affordable double gene suggestions would be highly appreciated!
Also, should we wait for the show in Feb.? What do you guys think?
Thanks so much!

[Emilio]

Hatchling Pic





My female Black Widow now.


I say get your Black Pewter.

[clairlevee]

Wow, just beautiful!
We have our eye on a black pewter for $275
Need to see some pictures though.
Anyone have any idea what black pewters females are generally sitting at right now?
Most of them I've seen (not talking VPI or anything here) are around $350

[killswitch]

Yes I see that you ruled out butters and pastels
HOWEVER in my opinion you cannot beat a queen bee.

You can get a hatchling pastel butter or pastel lesser and offspring wise you will be golden
bumblebee's
queenbee's
butter spiders are attractive.

And yes still going against your post another stunning combo

lemonblast (pastel pinstripe)
another wicked combo to pair with the spider

If I was in your shoes and sticking to 2 bp's with your price range and working with the spider gene definatly a pastel lesser! if you look around fauna you can get them for about 225 shipped or + shipping

just my 2 cents!

[Productmur]

San Antonio? Hey! -waves-

Depending on what side you live on or if you're willing to travel, check out River City Exotics. The owner, Mike, breeds his own Ball Pythons, and in December sometime, starts having some good sales. Granted, I don't think I've seen him with any black pastels, but you can always call and inquire upon his availability. :3

[digizure]

With your budget, I would have to say the lesserbee is one of my favorite spider crosses.

[clairlevee]

Don't get me wrong! I love butters. I'm actually pushing butters HARD. I may end up getting one myself. And I love lemonblasts. Totally. Feel free to go against the post! Thanks for your reply!

Hello! I live in Bulverde, but I go to school in College Station. We will pretty much travel anywhere in a 5 hour radius, we like road trips. I actually met Mike this November! He was great. Kicking Tyler for not knowing he wanted a ball python then. I need to contact him, I grabbed a business card.

Thanks! Really appreciate all of the replies

[killswitch]

I read my post and I think its confusing lol I will break it down better

Female Butter or lesser Pastel crossed with your spider will allow you to make:
Bumbebee (pastel spider) QueenBee (pastel spider lesser) LesserBee (lesser spider) and single genes of butter/lesser pastel spider
I picked up my Butter Pastel female for 225. (actually arrived on Tuesday)

otherwise the other route id go is a LemonBlast (Pastel Pinstripe) when bred with your spider will allow you to make:
Bumblebee (Pastel spider) Spinner (pinstripe spider) spinner blast (Pastel pinstripe spider) also more lemon blasts pinstripes pastels spiders.

If you do your research and look around you an find lemonblasts for cheap. I actually just picked up a really nice granite lemonblast on fauna (arrived with my pastel lesser female) Ill post a pic of the granite lemonblast I still need to take pics of the pastel lesser.

[Pythonfriend]

you have to consider the constant price drops.

if you invest 300 dollars into a double gene female, and breed it to the single gene spider, you only have a 12.5% chance to hit the jackpot in the form of a triple gene hatchling. and by then, all the single gene and double gene combos and the normals you produce will be worth less than 300 dollars, and these will make up 87.5% of your production.

the market seems to be quite saturated as it is, indications are that morphs increasingly show up in reptile sanctuaries and in retail / wholesale.

its totally fine if you want to breed just for the fun and the experience of it and out of your love for these reptiles, and are aware that you will most likely never break even. otherwise, if you expect a return on investment, im sorry to disillusion you.

with that in mind, i would say its most important that you get a female that is very appealing to you and that will produce offspring that also fits your personal taste. i personally absolutely love jigsaws and fireflys and stuff with enchi. just look at lots of ball pythons within your price range and take note of these that are visually most appealing to you then calculate what you would get, and decide how appealing these combinations would be to you. and then buy the one that you are most excited about.

[killswitch]

you have to consider the constant price drops.

if you invest 300 dollars into a double gene female, and breed it to the single gene spider, you only have a 12.5% chance to hit the jackpot in the form of a triple gene hatchling. and by then, all the single gene and double gene combos and the normals you produce will be worth less than 300 dollars, and these will make up 87.5% of your production.

the market seems to be quite saturated as it is, indications are that morphs increasingly show up in reptile sanctuaries and in retail / wholesale.

its totally fine if you want to breed just for the fun and the experience of it and out of your love for these reptiles, and are aware that you will most likely never break even. otherwise, if you expect a return on investment, im sorry to disillusion you.

with that in mind, i would say its most important that you get a female that is very appealing to you and that will produce offspring that also fits your personal taste. i personally absolutely love jigsaws and fireflys and stuff with enchi. just look at lots of ball pythons within your price range and take note of these that are visually most appealing to you then calculate what you would get, and decide how appealing these combinations would be to you. and then buy the one that you are most excited about.

This is absolutely true, however if you are only spending 300 dollars on a morph even if you got all single gene babies you would still make that 300 dollars back in 1 solid breed. Even so the cheapest Morph ball pythons pastels etc go for about 75 bucks each. so selling 4 snakes out of your 6 8 10 egg clutch will make you your money back. I think on a 300 dollar morph assuming you are taking the time and plan to breed its nearly impossible to loose your 300 dollar investment.
Even so, if you are buying a 300 dollar 2 gene animal as a hatchling and you feed it and get it up to weight and decide not to breed you should still be able to get your 300 dollar investment out of the snake by selling it now that it has size.
This is all assuming it lives, stays healthy and have no problems.