Please help us pick decide!

*This is NOT asking advise on proper husbandry, thanks!*

Quick background: So my boyfriend and I want to start breeding balls. We are beginning by collecting a few baby females of some morphs we like. Next year or so we plan to get most likely a super pastel male. We are new to ball pythons but I especially, have read everything I could on their care and breeding and have successfully kept many different types of herps. We also have a good friend who has been breeding for years helping us.

Anyway, at the last Tucson Reptile Show we purchased 2 hatchling females from a local breeder we know. One, a spider would not eat anything for us and always seemed very skittish and easily stressed (for a ball even). We tried just about everything you can try to get a finicky ball to take a meal. Finally the breeder offered to take her back and get her eating.

She still is not eating for him so he offered to either trade me out another female spider who IS taking meals readily. She is quite a bit bigger, around 200 grams vs the 60 or so our original baby was. She's also nice looking but is not quite as spectacular however, the first girl had very bright blushing.

The other option: He also has a female pinstripe (also around 200 grams) She's nice looking as well. The only thing is for her we would need to pay almost another $100. We paid $250 on the first spider and he wants $350 on the pinstripe but will go a little lower.

Alternatively, we could take the $250 credit and wait and see if he can get hold of a bumblebee or another cool morph.

So... take the larger and nice, but not quite as nice spider.
or
Pay another $100 and get a (also larger) pinstripe.
OR
Wait for something else?

The other female we purchased is a mojave, also gorgeous with very bright golds. She DEVOURS anything we put near her.

We do plan on getting a female bumblebee in the next few months which is the main reason I'm considering the pinstripe, so we don't have the same morphs coming out, breeding spider X super pastel AND BB X SP


Sorry for rambling a bit! So what would you guys recommend?

P.s. our breeder has assured me that our first spider girl will be fine, he just wants to give us a snake who will not be quite so finicky to start out with. I am quite aware that balls are frequently picky and may go off feed.

If you have the cash, go for the pinstripe since you're planning on getting a bee. Diversify your collection. Ask the breederif you could just add $50.

i would definitely go with the pinstripe since your planning on the bee also, and getting a lemon blast just sounds awesome imo lol. i also really like pinstripes and would personally rather have a bee and pin over a bee and spider. hope it all works out for you.

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Originally Posted by pbjtime8908

i would definitely go with the pinstripe since your planning on the bee also, and getting a lemon blast just sounds awesome imo lol. i also really like pinstripes and would personally rather have a bee and pin over a bee and spider. hope it all works out for you.

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Pinstripes never even have a chance of having the spider problems. If you bred the babies together (pastave x lemon blast), you could get jigsaws, jigsaw blasts, and super pastel jigsaws.

I agree with everyone else. If you can afford it, then go with the pin! It will give you more options in the future if you intend on getting a bee. :D

I would go for the pin if he comes down in price 350 seems a little much...

I'm a sucker for spiders but having a bee and a spider is redundant. For breeding you would be much better off with the pin.

Definitely go with the pin. I also have a female pin that I'm planning on pairing with my super pastel when she's ready, so maybe i'm just biased, but lemon blasts are really cool and a must have in a collection, in my opinion. Plus if you are planning on getting a bee, then you already have the spider gene covered. I was going to buy a spider female about a month ago, and decided against it. I could just pair my bumblebee to a normal and shoot for the odds of getting a female spider, if that's the route I decide to take. Much cheaper and much more satisfying if you ask me...

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Originally Posted by richieboo

i would go for the pin if he comes down in price 350 seems a little much...

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x2

Go for the pin. He is being great offering it to you, even at $100 more. IMO

LOL pick decide. Wow... this is why posting while tired is almost as bad as drinking and driving... I mean without the possiblity of killing a bunch of people. Way to make myself sound smart my first post lol

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Originally Posted by RichieBoo

I would go for the pin if he comes down in price 350 seems a little much...

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

x2

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x3

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Originally Posted by Coleslaw007

LOL pick decide. Wow... this is why posting while tired is almost as bad as drinking and driving... I mean without the possiblity of killing a bunch of people. Way to make myself sound smart my first post lol

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Lol, don't worry about it. We all make typos. I hate reading what I post at night because it usually doesn't sound quite right. :P

Welcome to the site. :welcome:

Thanks guys! Yea I was thinking the same on having bumblebee and spider being redundant. I think I'm going with the pin. Jigsaws are amazing!:snake:

I did try to haggle him down but I don't think he's going to budge much, he bought her as a breeder for his own collection at the same show we got ours and he wasn't able to haggle much at all on her either. Then he decided to sell rather than wait for her to grow. He IS willing to do $90 more down and throw in a rat pup each for her and my mojave.

I'm going to pick her up today so I will try a bit more to talk him down. We've been doing business a long time so he knows I physically can't help but to haggle lol.

I've checked online a lot and most of the F pins I see are around the $250-$300 range. So when I add shipping it's not much less if at all, and then I would also have to put the snake through the stress of shipping. I also would not have the credit already towards them because he won't do a refund, just credit.

I'll keep you guys posted and try to get some pics up. Our mojave just shed last night so she's even more gorgeous.

BTW are there any moderators who could remove either the word "pick" or "decide" from the title of this thread? Everytime I look at it I feel iliterate:please:

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Originally Posted by Coleslaw007

BTW are there any moderators who could remove either the word "pick" or "decide" from the title of this thread? Everytime I look at it I feel iliterate:please:

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Don't feel bad. It makes perfect sense to me. As in:
Every time I watch a soccer game, I have to pick de cide that I want to win...:rofl:

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Originally Posted by vypyrz

don't feel bad. It makes perfect sense to me. As in:
Every time i watch a soccer game, i have to pick de cide that i want to win...:rofl:

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lmao

Well we got the pin last night and she is GORGEOUS. I somehow just did not remember her being so beautiful from the first night he showed her to me. She is very bright and has a lovely dark stripe running the length of her on either side.

She is also crazy outgoing for a bp, we were handling her in the store before taking her home and she didn't even ball up, just wandered through our hands.

When we brought her home we tried tossing a fuzzy rat in with her and she didn't hesitate a second. This was immediately after having gotten home too, no time to calm down from the handling or travel. I know she could not have been terribly hungry either, as our breeder had just fed her in front of me a couple of days prior to demonstrate her willingness to take a meal. (We don't plan to power feed so will wait longer next time :))

She seems to be quite happy in her tub, when I peeked in this morning she poked her head out of her hide to investigate me. Such a curious baby!

We are quite happy with her and I think she'll like it with us. Will try to get up some pics soon. Thanks so much for all your advice, everyone!

Gosh I suck at summarizing lol