Suggestions on Where to Start?

With cost in mind, you could actually produce some really good looking BP's. You could consider the following as well. There should be something worth holding back out of those 3 clutches. :)

Male: Lesser / Yellow Belly

Females: Mojave / yellow Belly, Firefly, Pinstripe

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Originally Posted by BigIan

I know that I'm really drawn to the minimal pattern/yellows/albino/pied/BEL animals.

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the other suggestions are also nice, but i personally wouldnt want to combine so many different codominant genes without going deep into at least one gene, or gene complex. Unless thats what you want, but when you like minimal pattern / patternless stuff, which basically means super-forms or gene complex stuff, and you like recessives, i think you need to focus more on one gene or gene complex to get there quick.

so a plan for codominant stuff could be:

male super mojave (+ another codom maybe), female lesser (for very white BELs), female mystic or phantom (for mystic potion / purple passion), and then a female with maybe some other gene you like to add to the mix, maybe a female enchi, to later hit male and female mojave enchis. or a pinstripe, since that also works well with mojave.

or a male ivory (super yellowbelly), and a female yellowbelly, female specter (for super stripe), and again some other gene to first combine with yellowbelly and later breed into ivory / super stripe.

for a recessive a plan could look like:

a male visual pied, and a female pastel het pied, a female spider het pied, and then maybe just a 100% het pied female. then you can use your own hatchlings to gradually upgrade to a male pied + extra gene, and female visual pieds.


Basically, just choose 1 plan, and go through with it as far as you can with the resources you have. And which plan that is is your personal taste. But the male and at least 2 of the 3 females, or all 3 females, should really fit into the plan you have decided on.

then, buy female hatchlings, and one year later buy a male hatchling, and the male should be more expensive than any of the females. So, females for up to 500 maximum each, and then a 750 dollar male, that would (for example) make sense.

what about the Sugar's? Not many people seem to be breeding them...

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Originally Posted by BigIan

what about the Sugar's? Not many people seem to be breeding them...

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sugar or calico is a dominant, much like spider.

so you can work them into any project and sort of have them floating around and well-represented in your collection. But its not a recessive, and there is no super form, so you cannot really focus on it or go as deep into it as you can with other genes.

enchi for example, if you really like enchi you can go extreme and end up with super enchi + extra gene males, and a bunch of super enchi females and enchi + extra gene females, and then add other genes into that really enchi-heavy mix and keep stacking more genes onto your super enchi ball pythons.

With dominants where there is no super form, you just cannot go that deep.

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Originally Posted by BigIan

what about the Sugar's? Not many people seem to be breeding them...

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I love me some Sugar! Here's mine on the day I got her:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...oxSugarF07.jpg

Calico/Sugar are very similar. I went with Sugar when I saw this girl, but I was shopping for either at the time. More people seem to have Calico, but most of the combos I have seen with either are stunning.

If I had the money, I'd go lesser/butterbee female, firefly female and for the last one, get a 1 or 2 gene visual female 100% het pied (depending on what you can afford), for example mojave or pastave het pied, etc. For the male, I'd get a 2-3 gene 100% pied, that way you still have the opportunity to hit on the pieds, but won't be 'stuck' with as many normal offspring. Eventually you can replace or add to your breeding group with your awesome holdbacks :)

Females: Lesser and Pied
Male: Leopard Mohave

With just those 3 you can make both Pieds and BEL's. If you get a Yellow Belly female down the road and breed a daughter of hers back to dad there's the potential for Ivory Pieds.