Growing the Collection

Hello everyone!

I am looking for some input on adding to my collection. We recently acquired a proven adult male Spider Mojave and are interested in acquiring an adult female for him this fall. However, we also have three other balls and I want to make sure to make very good decisions on what we buy so that it's not just for a specific snake. I have as follows:

Male Spider Mojave - about 1300g
Male Banana - almost 200g
Female Super Pastel Spider - almost 500g
Female Bumblebee het Piebald - almost 400g

I was considering a Pastel Mojave, Mojave Pin, or Pastel Mojave Pin female to go after Blue-Eyed Lucies and Banana Pins.

Also looking at a male Pastel Banana Piebald that I found on MorphMarket to pair with my Bumblebee het Pied.

I'm completely at a loss if I should get anything to go with my Super Pastel Calico. I already think she will pair well with my Banana and my Spider Mojave, just a matter of waiting for her to get big enough.

I'm hoping to keep the cost of all future purchases under $500, though I realize that the Banana Pied on MM would be an investment. You would have to give me a really, really good reason to spend close to $1000 on a snake since I'm still new to this. Looking forward to all your expert advice! :)

Edited to add: I know my other three snakes would not be ready to breed this fall! I am open to buying snakes that are not adults yet.

I would recommend lesser or bamboo for the Mojave. You'll get pure white instead of the grey headed super mojo. As for the calico. Again bamboo pastel calico is smoking hot. Other genes that would be good is ghi.

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Getting a visual male pied would be good, but I don't know if I'd go for one with banana unless you really do want to spend that money lol.

I'd look at the genes you already have and other than the recessive pied, try not to double up on genes. You already have a lot of spider in your collection, so I'd avoid getting another spider. I agree that getting a lesser instead of a mojo would be a good plan. Super mojos have a darker head in BELs.

I'd look into some genes that would add things to all the combos you want to work with. Enchi, Orange dream, leopard, and black pastel or cinnamon would be good options to consider. Maybe a male pastel or leopard pied?

One thing I like to do, is playing with a genetic calculator when planning additions to your collection

https://www.morphmarket.com/c/reptil...ic-calculator/

you can plug in your current bp's and add in some of the animals while your shopping and check out the odds and morphs of the offspring produced to see if that's the way you want to go. Kind of like an audition.

For growing the collection, I'm kind of from the school of getting the powerhouse male and spreading him around your females. It's kind of a combination of what catches my eye, marketability and the the "possibilities" of what a pairing would produce and what direction or where that result would advance your project to. As some of the others suggested, getting your hands on some co-doms enhances and adds variety to a clutch and recommended. Hets are also a cheap entry into recessive projects.

If you found a male with 3 or 4 genes ( i.e Orange Dream, Enchi,Yellowbelly) to pair to your current females, it could give you a broader palette to work with, if that's what you want. There are plenty of ways to do this so find a multi combo male but one you really like and see what adding them to your collection looks like via the calculator.

It's totally positive that your are researching and asking questions, because i think its important to collaborate within the community. And, it's good to take a step back and reevaluate what you have and figure out where you want to go.

Thanks for the input! I did not know that BELs had different colored heads based on the pairing. I will definitely look into a Lesser. It was on the list of eventual acquisitions anyway. Also I do know I have a lot of Spider, it wasn't our intention to add a second one to our collection in the first place but we found him at an expo an just couldn't say no.

ArtGecko, Banana and Pied are my absolute favorite morphs so I'm hoping to get a Banana Pied someday. But maybe I'll just try and make one myself and I'll get a male and female visual Pied for my collection. :)

HCReptiles, thank you for the link, I have already been using the MM Calculator to try and figure out what would be good and why I thought the Pastel Banana Pied might be a good choice.

What do you guys think about something like an Emperor Pinstripe (Pastel Lesser Pinstripe) female for my Mojave Spider? It would also be a good match for my Banana, maybe get some Banana Pinstripes.

Banana calico lesser/mojave but a female banana by itself is over 500 usually so you might have a tough time staying within your budget


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Haha, thanks Ballday. I'm planning on getting my hands on a female banana some day. I want to make female makers! I just looked on MM to see if there were any Banana Calico Lesser/Mojave females, and there are not. But there is a lovely little Lesser Banana het Clown female; too bad she's $1400! :P