Choices, advice for a starting breeder?

I'm new into breeding of BP morphs, while I enjoy reptiles, snakes, working with them, etc, I also am making this an investment. I picked up a large spider male and I've been looking for females to breed him with. I have the following 2 choices:
1. $500 for a 2200g pastel female
2. $250 for 3 normal ~1500g females

Neither are proven, pastel hasn't been bred this season, normals have.

This will be my first season as well so I wanted to get on the post to see what answers come your way.

My personal choice would have to be all four:gj:
If you have to pick one deal I would go with the three normals, but thats just me. Girls take too long to grow. I would only pick the pastel if she really caught my eye, but like I said just bite the bullet and get all four, IF you have space for three I'm sure you can come up with space for one more.:D:D:D

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

This will be my first season as well so I wanted to get on the post to see what answers come your way.

My personal choice would have to be all four:gj:
If you have to pick one deal I would go with the three normals, but thats just me. Girls take too long to grow. I would only pick the pastel if she really caught my eye, but like I said just bite the bullet and get all four, IF you have space for three I'm sure you can come up with space for one more.:D:D:D

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It's not about the space, its about the cash I have on hand at the moment ! Tuition is coming due and most of my cash is going straight to that.

I would go with the pastel girl. You can make bumble bees, pastels, spiders and normals. I think you would be getting more for your money then just more spiders and normals. This is my first season also so people may beg to differ with how I feel.

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Originally Posted by MMReptiles

It's not about the space, its about the cash I have on hand at the moment ! Tuition is coming due and most of my cash is going straight to that.

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The phrase "I want to breed" and "Tuition is coming due and most of my cash is going straight to that".. Never a good combo.

First of all simply having breedable females is a teardrop in the pool of needed stuff for even thinking about breeding. My advice would be take the 750.00 buy a really cool morph to enjoy as a pet and hold off breeding till your money loosen's up and your time and energy get freed up..

Just my two cents.

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Originally Posted by MMReptiles

It's not about the space, its about the cash I have on hand at the moment ! Tuition is coming due and most of my cash is going straight to that.

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That is a GOOD piece of information to share there.
It does take a lot of money and some time too.
I started on a bator right after I joined BP.net and have been building when ever I have time and money to buy supplies. I can house 24 hatchlings, and 20 sub-/adults. Wife gets mad every time I come home from lowes with more wood:oops:
A year ago I wouldnt have thought I would spend as much as I have and thats not even including the snakes. :O
I know there are still things I need to build or buy but it all takes time and money. My only saving grace is that we pair our house off two years ago.:rolleyes: Though I might need a loan to buy a couple morphs I really want:P

I'd go with the pastel, easier to deal with one clutch than 3... baby spiders aren't worth much, normals are almost becoming giveaways and the pastel girl won't go down in value *much*. Plus you have 3 possible morphs you can hit rather than 1, so its more exciting once the eggs are ready.

That being said you could get slugs, poor odds, no eggs, etc... so don't blow all of your cash thinking you're going to make your money back. You probably won't... especially once you factor in rats, hatchling rack, heating, incubator, etc etc.

Good luck with whatever you decide. :gj:

I'd go with the pastel ... normals aren't going to yield you much profit.
how many more years of school do you have?
I am going to grad school/internship for 2 years, so I'm getting my snakes now, enjoying them as pets, and when I'm done, they might be ready to breed the following fall.

what i would do is sell the spider male ...and buy a good male that can go to any female and make diffrent morph like a pastel lesser ...and pick up normal,pastel,spider,pinstripe,mojave,fire,etc females...that way you can get all diffrent morphs..

Is get the pastel no questions asked

I would get the female pastel, sell the spider male and get a male bee at least u could get super pastel that way

you could also get two females normals and the female pastel?

some of you guys didn't read the part where he says he has a budget... I'm guessing if he can only spend up to 500, he can't get all or the pastel + 2 normals.

I would get the pastel for a few reasons. First and foremost you are a budget.

If you get the 3 normals dealing with 3 clutches (not to mention the stress of incubating them), is expensive. Lets say you get 4-6 from each female. that is 12-18 eggs. That is a LOT of babies to feed, house, and take care of. Taking care of the babies is a LOT of work. What if you have a few that don't want to eat? Do you have a ready supply of rat pinkies? 18 rat pinkies at 1.25-2 EACH and you have to feed them often.

LOL I have only one clutch of 5 babies and it is more than enough work. As the others have said normals don't go for much and spiders are becoming more and more common. Also, with the spider you will have the wobbles. So you will have to watch the babies to see who has what degree of wobble and believe me informed buyers won't buy "oh they don't wobble" especially if you are saying that of an entire clutch.

Now lets say you get stuck with the worst odds all male normals. IF you are lucky you will be able to sell them for $35 each if you are not lucky you will have to give them away.

Now on the other hand you get the pastel. You will have time to learn more about breeding, build or buy an incubator, you will have time to see how bad your spider's wobble is AND you will be able to save enough money for the expense coming of raising a clutch. Also with the pastel you have a chance to get better morphs.

Whatever you decide to do good luck.

I would do 3 normals most(normal lol:rofl::rofl::rofl:) people dont want to drop alot on a snake (other then the really interested) if you hach out normals a family run pet store will almost always take what ever you have and maybe some of the spiders MAYBE but if you start with $300+ snakes they are harder to unload quickly so if you dont have a cheap supply of rats or even alot of room you will end up pumping in more time and money into them then i think a student really has or money for but if you have the money and space to feed and house higher end morphs then go with the pastel

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

The phrase "I want to breed" and "Tuition is coming due and most of my cash is going straight to that".. Never a good combo.

First of all simply having breedable females is a teardrop in the pool of needed stuff for even thinking about breeding. My advice would be take the 750.00 buy a really cool morph to enjoy as a pet and hold off breeding till your money loosen's up and your time and energy get freed up..

Just my two cents.

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I would never spend $750 on a morph to keep as a pet, when there are many BPs who I could rescue and fix for less than that. My time/energy are more than free, school is a joke, it just costs money because I pay for it all out of pocket. Normally buying all 4 wouldn't be a huge deal for me, however twice a year I spend large amounts of cash in 1 sitting on school and it's good to have extra for books, and other unexpected occurrences.
Budgeting is a good thing.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

That is a GOOD piece of information to share there.
It does take a lot of money and some time too.
I started on a bator right after I joined BP.net and have been building when ever I have time and money to buy supplies. I can house 24 hatchlings, and 20 sub-/adults. Wife gets mad every time I come home from lowes with more wood:oops:
A year ago I wouldnt have thought I would spend as much as I have and thats not even including the snakes. :O
I know there are still things I need to build or buy but it all takes time and money. My only saving grace is that we pair our house off two years ago.:rolleyes: Though I might need a loan to buy a couple morphs I really want:P

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Unlimited time, money is the only factor, and it's mainly because these snakes are only available right now, if I could wait a month and buy them at the same prices, I would.

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Originally Posted by Drewp

I'd go with the pastel, easier to deal with one clutch than 3... baby spiders aren't worth much, normals are almost becoming giveaways and the pastel girl won't go down in value *much*. Plus you have 3 possible morphs you can hit rather than 1, so its more exciting once the eggs are ready.

That being said you could get slugs, poor odds, no eggs, etc... so don't blow all of your cash thinking you're going to make your money back. You probably won't... especially once you factor in rats, hatchling rack, heating, incubator, etc etc.

Good luck with whatever you decide. :gj:

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Not banking on making my money back etc, it's for fun and an investment that I plan to grow. I have many many many extra rats (from breeding other species/housing monitors), I have a heated room/incubator. Literally the only real cost I have is the animals themselves. I have everything else already in place.

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Originally Posted by Jessica Loesch

I'd go with the pastel ... normals aren't going to yield you much profit.
how many more years of school do you have?
I am going to grad school/internship for 2 years, so I'm getting my snakes now, enjoying them as pets, and when I'm done, they might be ready to breed the following fall.

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1 more year of school, I'm finishing the last year as a part timer so it isn't too bad.

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Originally Posted by akaangela

I would get the pastel for a few reasons. First and foremost you are a budget.

If you get the 3 normals dealing with 3 clutches (not to mention the stress of incubating them), is expensive. Lets say you get 4-6 from each female. that is 12-18 eggs. That is a LOT of babies to feed, house, and take care of. Taking care of the babies is a LOT of work. What if you have a few that don't want to eat? Do you have a ready supply of rat pinkies? 18 rat pinkies at 1.25-2 EACH and you have to feed them often.

LOL I have only one clutch of 5 babies and it is more than enough work. As the others have said normals don't go for much and spiders are becoming more and more common. Also, with the spider you will have the wobbles. So you will have to watch the babies to see who has what degree of wobble and believe me informed buyers won't buy "oh they don't wobble" especially if you are saying that of an entire clutch.

Now lets say you get stuck with the worst odds all male normals. IF you are lucky you will be able to sell them for $35 each if you are not lucky you will have to give them away.

Now on the other hand you get the pastel. You will have time to learn more about breeding, build or buy an incubator, you will have time to see how bad your spider's wobble is AND you will be able to save enough money for the expense coming of raising a clutch. Also with the pastel you have a chance to get better morphs.

Whatever you decide to do good luck.

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Just having cash up front is the problem at the moment everything else is set. As for it being a huge work load, I take care of 4 large monitors (which make snakes look easy), several species of toads, a bullfrog, and my collection of 40 some odd snakes, which I do breed.


I appreciate all the advice guys, it looks like I'll end up picking up this female pastel if all turns out well. Seeing as the normals have already bred this season and may possibly be gravid (to a 100% het ghost, what a waste), I'd rather not have to deal with 3 clutches I didn't even breed for this year.

Sounds like a good plan.

Last year part time, wooo! Lucky you. I'm doing like double time with a full time job. Sucky! Only 2 years left though!

Excited to see your first clutch though!

Go with the pastel, as stated before, housing and feeding hacthlings can be costly & a pain in the butt. then when you get bees you can breed a male back to the mom.

Picking up the Pastel Friday for $460, pretty good price ;)

Actually, you should go with the 3 females, because the maximum amount you can expect to make in the first season is several hundred dollars more than you could get from the clutch from the Pastel female. Plus, if the Pastel female doesn't lay, you get nothing. If one or two of the normal females doesn't lay, you still get something.

Maybe holdback some spider females, and sell the rest--use the money to buy an adult pastel female next year, and you get further ahead, faster.

Edit: My bad, I didn't read that they were already gravid by a het OG, and you were in it mainly for fun/hobby. The 50% poss het OG offspring would still be a bit of extra money, in spite of the bother, but if your main goal is to make pretty snakes faster, the pastel is a better choice).

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

Actually, you should go with the 3 females, because the maximum amount you can expect to make in the first season is several hundred dollars more than you could get from the clutch from the Pastel female. Plus, if the Pastel female doesn't lay, you get nothing. If one or two of the normal females doesn't lay, you still get something.

Maybe holdback some spider females, and sell the rest--use the money to buy an adult pastel female next year, and you get further ahead, faster.

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I'm hoping I can scrape up enough extra cash laying around without having to tap my savings to be able to buy the females. Problem is, those females are possibly gravid with clutches of nothing but PH ghosts- which gives me the issue of having to house snakes I didn't want nor breed for. I don't care if I get crap odds and getting nothing but normals when I breed, but because someone decided to do a really dumb pairing- I'm not taking the fall for that. Those 3 females are locked out for a good few months, whereas the pastel is ready to go asap. We'll see.

I'd go with the pastel. You can find adult female normals cheap on craigslist if you follow it, I've seen them for <$100 at the reptile shows, but it's darn rare that you find a nice sized female pastel at a good price.

She'll be great with the males you pick up as time goes on. When you start breeding you will appreciate being able to make combo morphs early on.