Which three morphs to start with?

[artgecko]

Hey guys!

I've decided that ball pythons will be the next species I add to my collection (I know, I know... being here on bp.net it should be a given that I get ball pythons. ) and I have come to you gurus for advice on which morphs to acquire first. I am not planning on breeding immediately, but want the animals I buy to be both good to look at (i.e. pretty enough to enjoy them) but also good base morphs for a collection when I do start breeding.

At present, I'm considering starting with a group of 3 females.. Grow them for a year or so, then decide if I want to buy a male and begin breeding.

That said, I love most of the morphs out there, but these are my favorites: Pastel, black pastel / cinnamon, fire, enchi, calico/sugar, mojave, butter/lesser, and pinstripe. I tend to like anything with a lot of contrast and my "dream snake" right now is a calico / sugar pastel.

Considering that I will be getting a male (in theory) for breeding, I'm trying to decide which three morph females to start with. I've narrowed it down to some options and would like your feedback. I'd like to keep the total for all three around $600, then spend more on the male when I get to that point.

1. Pastel / enchi / fire (I know enchi / fire are good ad-ins for morphs, but don't know if they look good on their own)
2. Mojave / butter / lesser (like all, but don't know which is best to start with)
3. Cinnamon / black pastel (don't know which look better as adults)

Please let me know if you have any suggestions or advice and thanks for your time / help!
Artgecko

[Pythonfriend]

butter/lesser or mojave. and pinstripe. combine these and you get emperor pins or jigsaws, and these are just awesome.

calico/sugar. i say they are the same morph, so i suggest you look for both, and when you find a really nice one, it doesnt make a difference, just pick a nice calico or sugar.

well, seems like i already picked 3. butter/lesser or mojave, pinstripe, and calico/sugar. spider is fine, it brings with it the wobble, but i think pinstripe is just better.

in many combos, it wont hurt to have pastel in it as a bonus, but on their own they most often brown out and they get less impressive with age. pastel is the most common morph of all of them, and one of the oldest, but i see it gradually falling out of fashion.

fire stays the same or even gets better with age. enchi, on its own, also ages quite well because it is primarily a pattern morph, but in combos it does insane things. for example, champagne typically erases all pattern, add enchi and the pattern comes back. or super fire, its a white snake, most often with random yellow patches along the dorsal. add enchi, and these yellow areas get dark outlines. super enchi even overwhelms piebald, and super enchi pieds are typically very low white.

so many choices, and with the current prices, getting two-gene female hatchlings is a real possibility.

[scooter11]

Fire spider sugar. Then add a pastel lesser male. All sorts if good stuff there. If you can get pastel with any of the first three....even better. That's what I'd do

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[steve_r34]

Its gonna be hard to keep 3 of those females under 600 ... u should up ur money n do it right from the beginning ... get all ur females double gened and then when its male time get a 3 gene male with all 3 genes in it u want to throw to ur 3 females ... for example u want a pastel sugar fire ... get a pastel sugar female .. and get a 3 gene male with fire in it .. so when u pair them u have that chance to hit ur pastel sugar fire ...

Or u can get all one gene females and 3 gene male ... that might be the way to go cause all those genes might get confusing to u in the beginning

[200xth]

enchi, fire, lesser.

With those three females you can make some amazing combos and they all look nice on their own, IMO.

[bcr229]

Females: Enchi, Lesser or Mohave, Black Pastel
Male: Firefly, Super Pastel, or Super Fire

[bigt0006]

Females=yellow belly,fire,enchi
Males=sugar/calico,super pastel,spector

Pastel enchis are awesome and so are super stripes ,fireflys are awesome also

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[artgecko]

Thanks guys for your input!
steve_r34- Honestly, if it was just me making a buying decision, that would be the way I'd go... But I have a non-reptile crazy husband to consider (he thinks $200 is a lot to pay for a snake even including shipping). I am also a little bit hesitant to start out with really expensive snakes, since I have not kept BPs before and want to "cut my teeth" before investing in a $500 animal, etc.

I do really like fires and enchis, just don't know much about them and have seen very few females of either for sale for reasonable prices.. They are not recessive genes, but seem to go for recessive single gene prices from what I've seen. Calicos/ Sugars are about the same... Would love to get one, but all the females I've seen are around the $400 mark..and that's not for stunning examples.

[Ladybugzcrunch]

Hard one but using your list....

1. Pastel (I think everyone needs a good looking pastel in their collection but I think you should shoot for a super pastel or firefly if you can afford it)
2. Mojave (I would select a lesser combo for my male snake later on Lesser Enchi being top on my list)
3. Black Pastel ( I like the black squiggles in the the pattern of black pastels as opposed to cinnies plus the super version is a darker snake)

Purchase a lesser enchi male in the next two years and you will be in awesome shape for breeding.

[Neal]

Spider, Lesser & Pastel.