Re: Mass producing morphs
Ken,
Maybe balance is a better approach. Sell half of the females you produce and maybe re-invest the money into another morph, or better racks, or what ever you need. Then keep the other females to expand your albinos into 2 or three solid breeding groups.
Neil
Re: Mass producing morphs
Oh yeah totally. I plan on producing my own females from my original albino male, and in two years buy another albino male to breed to them. I don't think I ever could inbreed my snakes unless I had an original morph, lol.
I have a really dark orange normal girl I can't wait to breed into my albino line. I love selective breeding and genetic diversity. I'll definitely be keeping those Het girls.
Re: Mass producing morphs
If I produce enough albinos this year I'll probably get a co-dom... not sure if I want a Spider or if I'll have enough to get a Lesser...
I wouldn't mind either... I just have a thing for white snakes, hehe. Next year I'll probably be buying 0.# Het Piebald.
Re: Mass producing morphs
Quote:
Originally Posted by bait4snake
Hell, I should just keep all my females, albinos and hets, to prepare for the future.
I know I would.... :)
Re: Mass producing morphs
As long as there are still combos left to be made, I doubt you will see too many people 'ruining the market' by focusing only on producing one specific morph by breeding only homozygous animals together. Sure people breed homozygous animals together....why not?...Is someone 'bad' because they want the guarantee of all homozygous animals in that clutch? But that kinda takes out the 'mystery' behind it all doesn't it? It would make it kinda boring.
Are you really trying to say "People should produce less morphs"? I really don't understand you logic. The simple fact that ball pythons are being 'mass produced' will cause prices to change...it has nothing to do with homozygous to homozygous breedings, so I can't figure out why that is an issue.
The ball python morph industry is slipping into the stage where the animals will be cheaper and more available. Deal with it. If you would pay attention, anyone seriously 'in the game' is starting(or already has) to increase the number of breeding snakes they have in order to produce more animals especially guys solely focused on ball pythons. Ever notice that alot of people are getting more space to get more snakes? Getting more animals and increasing MORPH PRODUCTION is the only way that they will be able to stay competitive and support a functional business when ball python morph prices drop even lower and the real big boys start throwing out hundreds upon hundreds of morphs a year.
Just my take on it all.....
Re: Mass producing morphs
Actually, it was more of a P.R. thing. I remember seeing someone's site recently who only had a pair of albinos and a pair of piebalds, and all they produced was those two morphs with every breeding, and for some reason it rubbed me the wrong way.
I was just taking the public's temperature, so to speak. Floating a little trial balloon before I made a decision.
Re: Mass producing morphs
I think a lot of breeders also use a homo forms to make crosses. If I had both a pied and a albino PAIR... I'd be tempted to breed the pied to both the pied female and the albino female, in order to produce more pieds, and double het pied/albinos.
Having a pair of visable recessives makes it really easy to assure theo dds by breeding them to ensure you get visable recessives to sell, or keep to breed yourself. There's a lot of if's in the breeding normally.. and getting a 'sure thing' once in a while would be terribly wonderful.
I'm still waiting on eggs here.. and not knowing what's in them really makes it hard to wait.
Wolfy
Re: Mass producing morphs
morph to morpth.. less hard-to-sell normals that have to suffer at the hands of someone who is a novice buying them because they are low-priced :)
Just another facet to this big, glittering diamond.