Opinion's Wanted: Next Morph/Project

Hello All,
First off - LONG POST, SORRY! I was hoping to pick the forum's brain on what some good/fun morphs would go well with the bp's I already have. So background - I have a Male Spider - Monty (shh, I thought it was clever) and a Female Pastel - Misty, these are my first two snakes and I don't plan on ever getting rid of them. In addition to my Spider and Pastel my friend/roommate has a female Spider Yellow Belly (Just verified she is in fact yellow belly).

My Goal: 1. Build up a sweet collection of awesome (in my opinion) morphs that I want while... 2. Creating positive cash flow from the projects I am working on year after year (I am not looking for tips on breeding, just options for cool projects).

Initial Project: Get bumblebee (I want!) and another pastel to work towards a Super Pastel. Then a Killerbee (keeper). Once I get the Killerbee I can breed him/her to a Pastel and get 25% equal chance of either Bumblebee, Killerbee, Super Pastel, or a Pastel. Selling just that clutch every year seems like a solid starting point, considering the price of most of them is more than I could hope to make extra in a year for doing a hobby I enjoy with animals that I love. They are also cheap enough that it will be relatively easier to find buyers while still being profitable. If I am lucky this project will come to fruition in 3-4 years (I don't know if my Pastel gal will be large enough come breeding season). I will also breed my Spider with my friends Spider initially until other options open up. We spoke about terms - 50/50 sales and half price purchases to each other for keepers.

After thinking about how long it will take to get to that point I thought I should look into other options. I am thinking about purchasing a Fire. I want, no, need a Black Eyed Leucistic. I figured if I get a Fire Male I can breed him with another female pastel, that I will no doubt end up getting, and maybe get a firefly which looks pretty cool. I would also breed him with my friends spider just to have more options for which bp(s) to keep to go after the BEL. If I can also catch a yellow belly in there that interests me I will work on going for an Ivory in the background.

So what do you think of my plans? Do you think I should check out another morph instead of a fire(I liked fire to begin with - enhancer and all - and I pretty much stopped looking after I saw the BEL)? Any ideas for what my friend should get for his next bp (he wants one and is saving up some cash) that would mix well with my plans above? Anything I might be missing? There are so many things to consider!

If you made it this far thank you, I appreciate any insight you have!

Okay, Tipsy, I was going through WoB the other week when I came across the Super Pastel Mocha Yellowbelly. My suggestion is to make that your end game. It is personally my favorite morph right now because well, it's damn gorgeous.

http://www.worldofballpythons.com/fi...-belly/001.jpg

It will take many years of breeding to achieve, but in my opinion, that snake is so worth it.

I don't know near enough about morphs but it sounds you are a man with a plan

I dunno how much you breed currently... But... It's a money hole for probably 5+ years, from what I've been told. The initial needs of racks and incubator and food and heating and all that is pretty considerable. I hope you've considered this, and are prepared.

I love anything with banana in it :D
http://www.worldofballpythons.com/mo...-bumble-belly/

Axanthics are neat. It's really up to you. Go onto World of BPs an type in spider on the list see the combo possibilities and the potential project length

Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I am aware, you cant breed Spider to Spider.

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Originally Posted by MattyN

Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I am aware, you cant breed Spider to Spider.

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Mating spider to spider has been done plenty of times.

That sort of mating should produce super spiders (with two spider genes in the gene pair), spiders (with a spider gene and a normal gene in the gene pair), and normals (with two normal genes in the gene pair). But nobody has demonstrated a super spider by breeding test. Current belief (unproven) is that super spider babies die in the egg.

Spider x spider matings are advised against because some of the babies have no chance of hatching. If if you are emotionally prepared for some embryo deaths, then go ahead with the mating. The spider and normal babies from that mating do just as well as the babies from a spider x normal mating.

I appreciate the tips guys and gals. I am aware of the need to study the market and have more long term plans to truly be profitable but this is also done for the love of the animals. I do love bananas as well.

As for the spider x spider I was aware that there is not proven super form but was un aware of the dangers of breeding two spiders together. I will not be breeding those two together then, it doesn't seem like the humane thing to do.

Be careful on world of ball pythons, the amount of combos you can make is ridiculous. And your gonna see and want a lot of them its crazy. My opinion check out the calico or sugars they mix pretty good with the spider gene.

I think calico is a good morph to add. I wanted a calibee but couldn't find one at the time so I got a beautiful calico. :)

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Originally Posted by Tipsy Llama

As for the spider x spider I was aware that there is not proven super form but was un aware of the dangers of breeding two spiders together. I will not be breeding those two together then, it doesn't seem like the humane thing to do.

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There are no dangers of breeding spider and spider. That is an old myth.

As for what to breed you should choose what you like. There are a lot of combos out there with spider in them. Take a look at different combos and see what you like.

http://www.owalreptiles.com/issues.php

Here ya go! The list of potential issues w/ certain morphs. To put that argument to rest. Good luck OP!!! :gj:

my advice would to be to invest in a 4 gene male to put with your girls... as far as the hobby has come your starting wayyyyy behind with single gene animals that are the most common by far... it will cost you more to feed and maintain than clutches will be worth... and wont leave you with many options of hold backs... when you breed a 4 gene male to a pastel female there will be 32 different possible combos that will come out... there will be so many cool combos hatched out in the next few months by every one think about the genes you like and look for a male that has several of them... the genes I would look for in the male would be: Fire, Calico, Enchi, "lesser or Mojave", Pastel, yellow Belly, "Black Pastel or Cinnamon", any 4 of them would be cool! I would try to stay away from spider or pinstripe in the male...

If you could find a snake like a Lesser, Cinnamon, Fire, Yellow belly that could be a really powerful snake having one gene from each complex... that male would be able to male 3 different kinds of white snakes and the black super Cinnamon along with all the cool combos!