Need opinions on purchasing new snakes!

[BenOtis]

I am new to breeding, but not to snakes at all!

I am looking at purchasing m Pewter $355 shipped, F big normal $225 shipped,
M Bumblebee, Male lemonblast and F lemonblast for $800 shipped.

Does this look like a good start to everyone? Or should I think of different morphs?


Thanks!

[Webley]

I would start by adding lots of females. It takes time for the girls to get up to size. When your females are at a comfortable breeding weight that's when I would buy a male or two. As for what morphs you should get I recommend getting morphs you want to breed and produce yourself! Pick your favorites =)

[MrLang]

For me personally, if I had the knowledge I have now and was entering the hobby right now:

I would not buy any normals.

I would only buy more than 1 snake with the same gene if it were a gene I was looking to work heavily with.

I would only purchase in a ratio of 1 male to 2-3 or more females. I would spend all of my money on females up front and worry about a male after a year when the females are at least half way or more to breeding weight.

I would only buy single gene females if they are new or very popular morphs.

I would avoid the most common morphs - I'd rather have a pair of newer or dramatic morphs than 3 pairs of common genes. The single gene pastels, normals, spiders, etc. will be difficult to recoup your costs on.

However - it is your hobby and your money. Do what you want and enjoy!!

[CryHavoc17]

http://ballpythonbreeder.com/2012/02...thon-breeders/


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[BenOtis]

Thanks for everyones opinion. A few of those snakes I mentioned at the beginining are already at about 1000g. Yes, some are hatchlings but some are not.

So a lot of you said go for more females obviously and multi-gene snakes. What are some snakes I should look at that you wish you did when you started?

[Commandokev]

If you can afford them and like them. Enchi and Desert make nice combos.

[don15681]

I would also buy females first. you also need a plan with where you want to be in 3 years. you need a good morph base of females to support the purchase of any male in the future. female combos jf you can. you have to be aware of buying sub adults, as many of these could be a breeder getting rid of females that he's having problems getting to a good breeding size. good luck, don

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Too many males why buy a male bee a male blast and a female blast?

How about a male bee a female blast and something else instead?

Or a male spinner blast instead of two males.




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[kc261]

As everyone else said, buy more females and fewer males. Possibly 0 males your first year purchasing.

With genes like pinstripe and spider, which have no (known) super form, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have very many copies of it. That's relative, of course; if you have a huge collection you'll need more than 1 copy. But since you listed only 5 snakes, I would not choose 2 that both carry pinstripe.

Buy what you like, and that means not only the genes you like, but the particular look you like. People will say "buy quality", and I agree with that, but it has to be what you consider quality. Reduced patterns are really popular, but personally I really like a busy pattern, especially on certain morphs.

[rascal_rascal_99]

I think you realize that you be heavy on females and would be upside down from where you want to be on m/f ratio right now...I think the idea of a spinner blast instead of a bee and a lemon blast is a great idea.

Personally, just my opinion of course, I think those prices look to be on the high end and not worth the price tags unless the examples of those you're looking at are really elite examples of each. Single and double gene males especially are not uncommon to find proven breeders that are being replaced due to people having more gene males to replace them, or just getting away from a certain gene. Cage space becomes more valuable and it makes it worth it to...for example...let a bumble bee go to someone for a good price because it's made them their money back and now they have something better like a queen bee or killer bee they'll be using from now on. I can't imagine paying 225 for a normal female either unless she comes with a money back guarantee that she'll produce every year and will lay 12-15 eggs a year. You can probably find them locally or at shows for half that...or spend another 75 and be patient and you can probably pick up an adult female pastel.

Mentioning the killer bee brings up another thought too, buy supers when possible...super pastel for example instead of a pastel.

Don't sink a huge amount of money into a powerhouse female. Buy single or double gene females that you like or want to mix into things, when you're ready to spend the money on a multigene powerhouse animal, make that one a male. Females often don't go every year and you probably don't want to end up with a lot tied up in an animal that you can only get one clutch of eggs out of every other year, or maybe two out of every three years. Maybe you get lucky and she breeds three out of four years or better, but don't count on it.

Buy what you are going to enjoy looking at and you'll enjoy the hobby and your animals a lot more.

One last thing, you didn't mention recessive genes, but if you get into them...hypo, pied, albino, etc... don't do het to het breedings, try to get a visual male and a couple of het females of each if you can't afford a visual female also.