Advice for a future breeder hobbyist?

So I am currently looking to build up my collection from 1 to a couple of breeding pairs (excluding my current boy, unfortunately, because he's pet-quality, no matter how gorgeous a normal he is.)

Now, as a new prospective breeder, I have a couple of practical questions.

I've been approached by a small-time breeder local to me about purchasing a male pastel hatchling for 75. That's all well and good, but I haven't been able to find a reliable market value for a pastel male, and I don't want to reach too far and snap up a snake that I could potentially pick up farther along in my collection expansion, already built and ready to breed for a similar price tag as what this guy is offering. I also have a sneaking suspicion that he may just see me as a pretty face who thinks snakes are cool, and underestimates my (still-growing) knowledge of the python industry. Tl;dr-- what is the standard market rate for male pastels right now?

Question number 2: Here's what I ultimately want from my breeding collection to start with: a spider female, a pastel male, an axanthic male (possibly combo'd, I just love the axanthic look so much) and a female het pied. What should my purchase order be in a practical world? (As opposed to the ideal world, in which I already have successful projects going lol.)

Any and all opinions are appreciated.

I think $75 for a baby pastel is a fair price, especially if the parents are of high quality and the baby is bright.

In my opinion, it starts with how much you can spend and what your goals are.

It looks like since you're willing to wait on the male, I would grab a couple females to begin with and the males later on.

If you are looking to make some combo's, it would take a couple season and some luck (especially with the recessives).

I do love spiders, pastels and axanthics are amazing!

Best of luck to you!

I can't say much about question 1, but I do have a comment on question two:

If you get a female het pied, you can only produce 50% possible hets with her. I don't know if that's too important, but you can waste time trying to prove if you actually made a het pied male, so its a long term commitment.

Second, start with females, since they take up to 3 years to be ready to breed. Males take a year (or even less)

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Originally Posted by bfirecat

it looks like since you're willing to wait on the male, i would grab a couple females to begin with and the males later on.

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Originally Posted by towelie4365

If you get a female het pied, you can only produce 50% possible hets with her. I don't know if that's too important, but you can waste time trying to prove if you actually made a het pied male, so its a long term commitment.

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Yeah, I'm still testing the waters with that choice. I don't know if I'd bother with it if I didn't already have any other het pieds lined up. It may be more relevant at a later date, because I have a lofty long-term goal of an axanthic pied project, but possibly not the best choice off the bat. I just wanted to fill that last female slot for the sake of conversation.

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Originally Posted by sho220

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Don't even worry about males at this point

Hello..my name is Vern. To answer your first question, $75 for a male Pastel is a accurate market price. As for your second question..I can tell you this. I have done a lot of research in preparation for starting my own breeding business. I have spoken with several breeders and other reptile keepers to get advice and or pointers. That being said, the best I can tell you is this, buy your females first and raise them up for a year, then buy your males. This way by the time your males are ready, the females should be ready too.

Also, if you buy some combo males and some single gene females and a few 100% het females. you can get the better bang for your buck..ie more animals for your money. For example..if you were to buy 0.3 100% het pied, 0.3 100% het albino, 0.1 pastel, and then pick up 1.0 bumblebee, 1.0 firefly, 1.0 cinnamon,1.0 pied, and 1.0 albino. This is just an example, but it would be a good solid start. I hope this helps.

$75 for a male pastel sounds about right.

I'm not a breeder but I have been thinking about breeding for awhile now might not be much help but if you want to start think about how ready you are to keep snakes that don't sell.

also think about the market now a days some snakes are selling cheap because there is a lot of breeders producing single gene ball pythons ex. spiders, pastels, pinstripes. even some double gene snakes are going cheap

in my opinion recessive snakes are good project if you plan on breeding you might want to start off with visual morphs that are het. for something.

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Originally Posted by Archimedes

Yeah, I'm still testing the waters with that choice. I don't know if I'd bother with it if I didn't already have any other het pieds lined up. It may be more relevant at a later date, because I have a lofty long-term goal of an axanthic pied project, but possibly not the best choice off the bat. I just wanted to fill that last female slot for the sake of conversation.

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Het pied males are relatively cheap now, and het x het clutches have a good chance at producing at least one pied, so I wouldn't hesitate if that's the easiest way for you. You might want to consider a pied female too, since the extra time and mouths to feed to produce a pied might not be worth what you save. You should be able to find one for under $700 now, probably less during the peak season

Like others are saying buy the females first. Buy females of the genes you like now(spider, pastel, ect) and continue to research as you raise them up. When it is time to buy your male, prices will have come down, you will not have paid to feed and house him, and your tastes may have changed. If you got the pastel male now, there is a chance that you would want a different male to breed by the time your girls are ready. That might mean a different gene or a multi-gene male. There is always a use for a breeder female, but a breeder male that is the wrong gene or a gene less than desired is not useful. Which is why there are so many more ads for proven breeder males than females. Most are getting replaced by their son that has everything they have plus a gene or two.