Help me with my next BP purchase! Best business / breeding strategy wanted.

Hi!

So, I looked at my budget and I have about $500 to purchase my next ball python. I could also always wait and save up more. I was hoping to get some advice from all of you very successful and wonderful BP breeders about what would be the best strategy for my next purchase.

I want to get into brightly colored BPs that retain their color as best as BPs can. I've found fires / vanillas / spotnose to be very attractive, especially when mixed with pastel or anything that makes it bright. I already have a stunning female firefly.

So, I was wondering. Is it generally best to invest in supers (for example, I could purchase a super vanilla pastel), or it is best to go with something where you have a chance of getting three genes (for example, the pastel spotnose lesser)? This is more of a business question since I love them both.

There are also other things I could do. I have seen monster pastel females go up for very cheap lately and part of me wonders if that would be a good investment or if I am better off picking out the most stunning animals I can find and raising them up myself.

Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much for your time!

Allie

Colin Weaver of ECRB (East Coast Reptile Breeders) has written several good articles on this exact topic. Here's a good one to start with: Practical Principles for Ball Python Breeders.

Be patient, search for quality and work with morphs you truly enjoy!

I suggest getting a male banana hatchling. These look cool bred into almost anything. They are my favourite combos and favourite morph. The reason I say male hatchling is because of your budget. These can be pricy as adults and especially if they are females.


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I know it is tempting to buy up a bunch of pastel adult females just to get the ball rolling on breeding, but don't. I will tell you why....Taking care of a bunch of snakes is work, from feeding to cleaning and the whole breeding process..it is work. You will grow very tired of this work unless you really like each and every snake you own. Also there are guys who keep thousands of BP's playing the quantity game. You need to focus on the quality game. Everyone can point you in a direction as far as gene's to pick, but ultimately pick something you want and then keep your eye open for a quality example of that animal. Don't just buy a spotnose pastel lesser because it has 3 genes that you want, buy it cause it is the nicest one you have seen. However since you are going to be selling these hatchlings you need to pick something that will sell, either online or locally. Co-doms are the most instant gratification, but Recessives are where you should be looking in my opinion. Some that I like: black pastel ghosts & anything pied. You can afford a female now and pick up a male in a couple years. If you insist on Co-doms then can i suggest Lessers, Leopards, Vanillas. A super vanilla like you said is a great animal and not a lot of people are working with them. Banana's are so SOOOOOOO overdone right now. everybody and their brother put a banana male to half of their females & the banana gene has a way of masking the quality of the other genes. A banana dirty lesser looks the same as a banana clean lesser. You get the idea. Sorry for rambling, but just giving some ideas for you to toss around! good luck!

Buying adult females is tempting for sure, I gave in early on and purchased a big normal girl. Looking back, my money might have been better spent elsewhere, but that doesn't change the fact that she's due to drop my very first clutch in the next week or two. I've seen some other adult females of various morphs at shows, but I don't think I'll be rushing into buying any more of them over younger, nicer looking females that don't have the full-grown price tag premium. Bear in mind, most of these proven breeder females for sale are pretty low quality, and paying almost half the price for a much better quality hatchling and putting in the time to raise it up will end up being a better investment in the long run.

I am a big fan of dramatic morphs that are easy to pick out of a bunch. Sure fires, vanillas, and spotnoses can be very pretty and hold colors well into adulthood, but they're still to subtle for my tastes. When I get excited and go to show people who may not be familiar with snakes what I have, I like for them to very clearly see how wildly different the animal I'm showing them is from what they're used to seeing. That's just my personal thing, though. I love the look of lessers and cinnamon combos, and my lesser bee is probably my most handsome fellow. I've said before, I really like the colors of a hatchling lesser bee (coffee and cream looking), but I absolutely adore the adult coloration (gold and toasted almond). Sometimes it isn't about retaining color, sometimes a beautiful transition can be just as stunning.

Recessives, like BrianDallek said, are always nice projects. Everyone loves a pied, period. Also, lavender albinos are by far the best example of that beautiful transition color change I mentioned before. Lavs only get better with age! Honestly, there are a lot of awesome and practical morphs and combos you could add at this point, the sky is pretty much the limit.

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Originally Posted by BrianDallek

I know it is tempting to buy up a bunch of pastel adult females just to get the ball rolling on breeding, but don't. I will tell you why....Taking care of a bunch of snakes is work, from feeding to cleaning and the whole breeding process..it is work. You will grow very tired of this work unless you really like each and every snake you own. Also there are guys who keep thousands of BP's playing the quantity game. You need to focus on the quality game. Everyone can point you in a direction as far as gene's to pick, but ultimately pick something you want and then keep your eye open for a quality example of that animal. Don't just buy a spotnose pastel lesser because it has 3 genes that you want, buy it cause it is the nicest one you have seen. However since you are going to be selling these hatchlings you need to pick something that will sell, either online or locally. Co-doms are the most instant gratification, but Recessives are where you should be looking in my opinion. Some that I like: black pastel ghosts & anything pied. You can afford a female now and pick up a male in a couple years. If you insist on Co-doms then can i suggest Lessers, Leopards, Vanillas. A super vanilla like you said is a great animal and not a lot of people are working with them. Banana's are so SOOOOOOO overdone right now. everybody and their brother put a banana male to half of their females & the banana gene has a way of masking the quality of the other genes. A banana dirty lesser looks the same as a banana clean lesser. You get the idea. Sorry for rambling, but just giving some ideas for you to toss around! good luck!

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Gracias!



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^^ you've gotten some great advice above. I am new to the "business" side of bps. I started a year ago collecting the best quality hatchlings of the morphs I liked (I also like the eye catchers, specially my lesser bees). I did buy an adult killed bee female recently because I was getting impatient but in hindsight I could have used that money to put towards another nice hatchling since I already had a female about ready to go. Get high quality animals that will sell well. That is how you will make it as a small hobby breeder because the people who dive in and buy up a bunch of cheap adults, quickly find themselves selling out

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Originally Posted by Daigga

. Everyone loves a pied, period.

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Except my girlfriend...😞

^^^ :O lol Pieds and CG's are big sellers. If you get a CG get a non male maker. For $500 you could get a baby male CG and a sub adult pinstripe (1,000ish grams) and they would be ready to get to work for you next season. I bought a 1,400g Pewter (F) and 750g YB Pewter (M) for $300 late last year and the female is going through pre-lay shed right now. My fingers are crossed for some supers (pastel, cinnamon, and pewter). At least one anyway, and not in that order...lol

I'd like to add something to my original advice. There are some really great breeders out there that will sell you adult females that are a good deal if you wanted that gene anyway. I'm just saying not to buy an adult female just because it is an adult female and your in a rush to make babies or money (btw there isn't much money in this, most hope to just break even). This time of the year breeders are clearing their racks to make room for 2015's. You can get a steal of a deal on nice looking early 2014 females and bypass a whole year of waiting. I just picked up a 2014 Super Pastel Axanthic female and a 2014 Pastel Calico Leopard het Pied female from Greg Graziani. They are both around 400grams and I will breed them in the fall of 2016.

Thanks so much for the advice everyone! :sunny: You guys are wonderful!

Of course, right as I saved up a bit of money I ran into financial trouble. Ah well, I am picking up some side jobs to see if I can save up again.

I had a question, though - do you find that recessive combos keep their value longer? I was a bit shocked looking at the codoms available for sale at strikingly low prices compared to what I paid for mine 2 years ago. :crying: Do combos like axanthics / pieds keep their value longer? What about BELs?

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Originally Posted by AllieKin

Thanks so much for the advice everyone! :sunny: You guys are wonderful!

Of course, right as I saved up a bit of money I ran into financial trouble. Ah well, I am picking up some side jobs to see if I can save up again.

I had a question, though - do you find that recessive combos keep their value longer? I was a bit shocked looking at the codoms available for sale at strikingly low prices compared to what I paid for mine 2 years ago. :crying: Do combos like axanthics / pieds keep their value longer? What about BELs?

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Recessives definitely keep their value longer.

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Originally Posted by bondo

Recessives definitely keep their value longer.

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Thanks so much. That's where I'll invest, then. :)