Choices...Choices....

Okay folks, input, opinion, whatever please.

For about the same amount of money (well within $100) we can either buy one male 05 pastel or we can buy 1.1 05 100% het albino's.

Since we like both albino's and pastels and the snakes are being offered by 2 different breeders, both with excellent reputations I'm just going back and forth on which we should go for and which is the best investment wise for future breeding projects.

We'd appreciate any feedback.


~~Joanna & Mike~~

looking at it from investment view, i'd go for the pastel (co-dom) and breed him next year to 3 or 4 normal girls and produce 1/2 pastels and 1/2 normals.
the het albinos you'll have to wait 2 to 3 years for the albino to be produced. the money from a pastel group could buy you an albino. i actually bought my pastel male and poss. albino clutch last year at the same time and i'll be breeding pastels this winter and my poss. girls will be ready next winter.


vaughn

I had to make a decision like this a while back....but mine was between hypos and a pastel.

If you had an adult female of breeding size, I would say go with the pastel because you could breed fairly soon and produce some more pastels. If you dont have adult females, It will take the same time to raise the hets as it will to raise a normal female to breed to the male pastel.

You have to consider with getting the pastel you will have a visual ball python morph, but with the hets you will not produce an albino for 2-3 years. So that is something to consider.

I went the hypo route because I like them more, and I dont mind waiting for a visual morph. It all boils down to which one you like the best in the end. Another reason I decided to go with the hets is that you only need to buy the het female the first year, then you can get the het male the next year. That was great for me because I dont usually have 800-900 dollars to drop at one time. So this year I am getting a het hypo female and next year I will get the het hypo male(or if the money is good a hypo male) and hopefully produce some hypos in 3 years.

hope that helps.

If you want money right now, go for the pastel. Co-dominants are great for a quick fix, but for long term investment they aren't worth all that much. Their prices will drop exponentially. For future investments... everyone will want an albino. They're hard to produce, and the prices will remain more stable. The albino Burmese python is still a huge hit with the public, so imagine the demand for a small easy-to-handle little/big snake like a Ball Python. Personally, pastels are a good morph to combine with others or to make super pastels, but adult size pastels don't look all that impressive. If you're into short term cash, go pastel. If you're into long term investment, go albino.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bait4snake

but adult size pastels don't look all that impressive.

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They don't?? Hmmmm .... sounds like you need to find some better pastels.

http://www.8ballpythons.com/uploads/pastel-03310501.jpg

:D

-adam

We've been looking at a lot of pics of both juvenile and adult pastels and albino's from Adam, NERD, Ralph Davies, Markus Jayne and I'd have to agree with Adam on this one....a lot of adult pastels are downright gorgeous though do seem to be quite different breeder to breeder. Albino's though are lovely too. This is a darn difficult decision!


~~Joanna~~

I sooooo understand your dilemma. I'm in the same boat. I can't decide on which morph I want! They're so cool! I'm leaning more towards the caramels but I really want to see them in person first. This is so hard!!!! :tears:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

I'm leaning more towards the caramels but I really want to see them in person first. This is so hard!!!! :tears:

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Like I told your sister Saturday ... give me a call next time you're in the area ... you guys are always welcome to come over and dig through the racks.

Heck, you can pull out a couple of snakes at a time and watch me sweat making sure that they get put back in the right boxes ... right Vaughn???? :P

-adam

....LMAO.....Adam, so which one was the het caramel and which one was the het hypo?.... I could see the chaos now...

Thanks Adam for the invite. I may just give in and go with it because it looks like it may be forever until I get back up there. UGH! GRR! I don't know if it would help or end up in divorce ;) I get there and start.... I want one of those and one of those and one of those..... Although my husband has been very sweet and understanding so far. I'm trying to behave myself, but they're just sooooo cool! I'm trying to infect more people!! I'm like the plague! hehehehe :devilish: One sister down...the rest of the world to conquer. Mua hahahaha (Did I mention I need help :rolleyes: )

at least they were all het hypo!!! next time i'll try 3 different morphs! lol
adam has some killer adult lemon pastels and hypos. that one big pastel breeder is awesome i thought he was a female adult at first glance, he's that big! as i said before if you like both, eventually you'll have both. go for the pastel and produce babies in a year and buy an albino with that income!


caramels are cool and better in person!


vaughn

i was trying to make this exact same desicion just a few months ago but somehow i ended up with two more female balls and my problem was solved.
time for a pastel.
make some cash and then go for the albinos or maybe pieds, or orange ghosts or caramels or spiderzzz(but not for 8000)
when the time comes.

Ok, Adam, you got me, lol. I guess I've seen too many pastels bred to crappy normals just for a quick buck. I've been asking myself, "Where's all the selective breeders??" I finally got my answer. How much are you asking for your line of pastel males? They are gorgeous.
I'll have my own line of selectively bred albinos by spring 2007. It's all personal preference, so who are we to say what anyone should breed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bait4snake

I guess I've seen too many pastels bred to crappy normals just for a quick buck. I've been asking myself, "Where's all the selective breeders??" I finally got my answer. How much are you asking for your line of pastel males? They are gorgeous. I'll have my own line of selectively bred albinos by spring 2007. It's all personal preference, so who are we to say what anyone should breed.

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One of the main purposes of buying a beautiful clean ''selective breeder'' is to market you ball pythons as being offspring of that great looking animal. Just because you have a ball python that ''looks great'' or ''looks bad'' does not mean that it will throw offspring that look just like it. I have seen an albino that was completely faded into almost a solid tan.....but all of his offspring were high contrast and are still high contrast three years later. I have also seen a wicked looking ''selective breeder'' pastel have offspring that were just fairly ''normal'' for pastels. You will have some awesome bps and some not so great bp in every clutch. It all depends on how the ball python gods favor you when you are breeding.....IMO

straight up!

Thank you all so much for the input. We've decided to go for an 05 male pastel. Now comes the research into which breeder to go with. We've looked at more pastels in the last 2 days then I may ever have wanted to LOL but spending 800+ dollars is a major decision in our lil lives so we want to spend it wisely.


~~Jo~~

Sure is!

Very cool to see you all taking it to that next level - sounds like the BP bug bit you squarley!

Bit us big time is right LOL. Actually it's wonderful to find a new hobby that both Mike and I can enjoy equally (not always easy in any marriage). Oh well I can always get that new couch set I had my eye on another year. With a 4 year old running around it wouldn't have last long anyways.

~~Jo~~