I thought I knew what kind of female I wanted...

So I have a male Lesser, nice colors on him and I was thinking of getting into small scale breeding a few years down the road as I'm partial to the blue eyed lucy. I thought about getting a pied mojave female to pair with him when they are both old enough, that way if I get lessers or mojaves from them they will still be 100% het pied, but I've been hearing that pied with the BELs can produce problems. I want to add a bit more than just mojave to the mix. So I'm conflicted.

Is the Pied not so big a deal with the BELs or should I look into Enchi or Spider instead?

I tried to get some pics of Blooky in natural lighting to put in here, but he's going into shed so he's all dull colored, alas maybe later I'll add it in once he sheds.

The issue is with lesser pieds they tend to produce animals with small eyes.

BEL Super Lesser will tend to produce animals with bug eyes, so I would recommend Lesser x Mojave instead.

Trading for Spider is trading for another issue (wobble) which while most animals will live a normal life, the way people are now looking at Spiders has changed and they have become more difficult to sell which is ironic since they are not the only mutation that will wobble to a degree.

So know what can be paired what can't and whether the animals you will produce will be animals you will be stuck with or not.

Fair. I've been slowly learning which genes are dominant, co dominant, and I have no intention of breeding for a few years since my male is still a baby and any female I get will also likely be a baby. Such a shame that pied gives the babies tiny eyes, and I'd heard a bit about the wobble but wasn't sure how pronounced it is. The spiders I've seen haven't had noticeable wobbles so that it's such a major issue is so weird to think about. I'm gonna keep doing research, I have several months before I'm ready to get a second so I won't be going out to buy something tomorrow or anything. Just basically fishing for some more info at the moment.

A mojave pinstripe clown would give you normal eyed BEL's, lesser pinstripes and jigsaws all het for clown. Might be worth looking into. ;)

Oohh that's a great idea.

I also thought about getting maybe a desert mojave and/or a fire Enchi. I'm still doing research and it's gonna be a process. I'm also saving up to get a nice rack system so that when I have more than just Blooky I'll have plenty of space.

Avoid desert ( different morph to "desert ghost" [recessive] ) as the females can't lay fertile clutches. Which means you will have a hard time selling them as anything more than great looking non breeder pets.

Good to know! Thanks!

Buy a female mojave or mojave mix that you like the looks of. Mojave and Enchi go VERY well together, as does Mojave and GHI.

Get a snake you think is cool. Don't worry about what combos it could make, just buy snakes you like. When I started my collection I was all ate up about wanting to make this snake or that snake, then I sat back and took a breath and just bought some morphs that I like as they sit (slither) now. I'm going to have them for a long time, I don't want some snake I'm not super crazy about that I bought just so it could pass on its genes to some snake I would care about.

What happened on my end after striving for genetic diversity, is that half my collection is a super pastel something or other. Apparently I dig superpastel combos, oh well.

One of my males though, Chompy, hes Mojave Enchi Ghost. And I really dig him. I think Mojave is a fantastic gene on its own or in combos.