Better to get a het male or female?

I have decided that my next bp purchase will be an albino (one of my favorite morphs). I am alsot getting a rack, and I will probably need to fill up some of the tubs :)

In a few years I would lilke to try my hand at breeding -- mainly just for fun. Right now I have a male normal, and a male spider. I figure since I am gonna get an albino; I might as well get a het albino as well.

Would it make more sense to get the female albino and the male het albino, or vice versa?

Thanks!

(I'm not that great at it, but I'm starting to understand how genetics work a little bit better :) )

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by chapskis1

I have decided that my next bp purchase will be an albino (one of my favorite morphs). I am alsot getting a rack, and I will probably need to fill up some of the tubs :)

In a few years I would lilke to try my hand at breeding -- mainly just for fun. Right now I have a male normal, and a male spider. I figure since I am gonna get an albino; I might as well get a het albino as well.

Would it make more sense to get the female albino and the male het albino, or vice versa?

Thanks!

(I'm not that great at it, but I'm starting to understand how genetics work a little bit better :) )

---

Most people will tell you to go with the albino male and heterozygous female. This way, you could also breed the albino to other females, and everything that comes from those pairings will be heterozygous albino.

I would go with the visual female and a het male. You have a male spider you could pair up with a visual albino female and get some spiders het albino later on. ;)

I would go visual male and het female...

I think that is up to where you want to head up with the Albino gene in the future with your other morphs.

If you want to mix your male spider with albino gene, then a female albino would be the easiest route. Also females get bigger, so if you really like Albinos, having a big female after the years have gone by would probably be appealing to you more.

I would get the visual female and raise her up. Don't bother getting a male for a year or two. One less mouth to feed. And a het albino male is not going to be that expensive when the time comes.

However... I like the suggestion of the spider male to the albino female. Great combo. Make yourself some little 100% het albinos and then go from there. Maybe get a spider 100% het albino male and then breed him back to mom for some sweet spider albinos.

It depends on if your thinking of really getting into it or if you are just having a little fun. If it's just for fun then get a visual female. If you are really getting into it, then get the visual male.

A visual male would set you back the price of one visual albino, then you can get as many het females that you would want to pair him to enabling more than one clutch.
1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc.
If you get a visual female, well she can only have one clutch. :D

For fun: I would get the visual female, and begin an albino spider project. I wouldn't bother with a het at all.

-Marc

if it were me i would go for the visual female. once she is up to size anything you breed to her will produce hets.
if you breed your spider male to her theoretically 50% of the offspring will be spiders and all of the normals and spiders will be het. the following year you can pick any of the spider offsprings and breed them back to make more spiders, het albinos, albinos, and spider albinos. that's a nice clutch.
John

Forget the het male. Albinos are cheap enough to buy a pair. BG would never breed a het male to a female nowadays.

I would get only visual female!if you have another male (spider,pin.ecc),you will pair him whit the albino female and get some morph and normal het albino!
Later you will pair a son(morph or normal) whit his mother and take albino (and albino morph)!

As with most "what should I get?" questions, the answer is it depends on what is already in your collection, where you want to go with your breeding projects, and how many years you are willing to wait to see the end results.

As BG said, albinos are getting to a price that is pretty affordable to many people. If you can afford to get both a male and female, that would certainly be the fastest route to producing the largest number of albinos and albino combos the soonest.

If you are more limited on money, you have several less costly options. You said you plan on buying an albino, so presumably that is within your budget, but in case it isn't, or for anyone else reading this thread, the very cheapest would be to get a het male, and a normal female. Hold back all females from the pairing, and breed the male back to his phet daughters. This takes a long time, but after working on it so long, it would be very rewarding seeing that first white & yellow head poking out of an egg. I also think there would be an extra degree of specialness when the first albino you ever owned is one you produced yourself.

A middle of the road option would be getting a male albino and a female het. This has the advantage that the male has a good chance of being ready to breed within a year or so, so you could get started sooner on any albino combo projects you might be interested in. You may find you never breed the het female to your original visual male, because in the meantime you've produced something like a male pin het albino, and you'd rather shoot for the combo. However, the male will still be useful for producing the hets for your combo projects. Also, a male can be bred to several females and produce several clutches in one season. However, it will take 2-3 years to get the female het up to size, and then once she produces a female visual, another 2-3 years to get her up to size, for a total of 4-6 years to get to the point of having both a male & female visuals of breeding size.

The other middle of the road option would be getting a male het and a female albino. When I was last looking at albino prices (probably a year ago, so it is possible things have changed), females weren't very much more than males, and you might even be able to get a free het male thrown in for free, so this might not cost any more than getting the male visual and female het. Or, you could wait a year to get the male het, reducing your feeding costs, and leaving open the possibility of getting a visual male if you can afford it by then. If you go this route, you won't really be able to get started on your albino projects until the female grows up. However, once you reach that point, you'll have no more delays. If you produce a male spider het albino, for example, you'd be able to breed him back to the albino female as soon as he gets big enough, and have reasonably good odds of hitting the combo. Plus, once you are able to breed her and hold back a visual male, it should take only a year or 2 to get him up to breeding size, reducing the time to having both male & female visuals of breeding size to 3-5 years.

As has been pointed out, you do also have the option of just buying a single albino, and pairing it to other morphs, then breeding back to your original albino to get the combos. You'll still produce regular albinos in your attempts to produce the combos. Since you already have a male spider, getting a female makes sense, especially if you intend to keep your collection small. However, if you already had some females, I'd recommend getting the male, since you'd be able to use him sooner.

Really your only option for speeding things up is finding a female/male that are breeder size already. The only issue with doing that is that you are more than likely going to spend a lot more money.

I personally would go with the female albino and if you get a het male for free, then take it. If it turns out you don't get a het male for free, then just grow the female and leave the het male out of it all together. You don't ever have to feed a het male, because by the time that albino female becomes age/weight appropriate for breeding you'll just breed back and get your albino's or spider albino's or pinstripe albino's. Whatever it is you are shooting for basically.

Not to mention in the long run, Spiders het albino are worth more than just a regular het. Same with any morph het albino for that matter. So unless you plan to breed the het male/female (whichever you decide on) every season, then it's a waste of time imo. Just stick with the visual morph, and breed it out. It will be much more rewarding in the long run to say you produced "YOUR" spider albino's.

Food for thought.

*Rant on:

You know it's really disturbing to see so many people having absolutely no issue with inbreeding when it is not necessary. These days there is no reason to back breed albinos. They are so inexpensive and so common. If you can't afford to do it right then don't do it at all. If you so decide to do it then cool. It's up to you. I do not see the reason to suggest to others to do it. To what purpose does this serve? Take your time and enjoy the benefits of bettering the blood line and knowing that you will have better snakes. Selective breeding is the key not inbreeding.

*Rant off:

Any ways it's better to get a visual male and het females if you want more albinos. If you want one visual and crosses with the males you already have, then get a visual female. If you have all the time to just enjoy it as you go, then just get hets.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TessadasExotics

*Rant on:

You know it's really disturbing to see so many people having absolutely no issue with inbreeding when it is not necessary. These days there is no reason to back breed albinos. They are so inexpensive and so common. If you can't afford to do it right then don't do it at all. If you so decide to do it then cool. It's up to you. I do not see the reason to suggest to others to do it. To what purpose does this serve? Take your time and enjoy the benefits of bettering the blood line and knowing that you will have better snakes. Selective breeding is the key not inbreeding.

*Rant off:

Any ways it's better to get a visual male and het females if you want more albinos. If you want one visual and crosses with the males you already have, then get a visual female. If you have all the time to just enjoy it as you go, then just get hets.

---

If the goal is to produce albino spiders, I see no reason not to breed offspring back to parent. Unless you just want to throw more money on an additional spider het for albino..?