What to do??

Ok, here's the deal: I have the opportunity to pick up a breeding pair of adult Creamsicle corn snakes for $150 in August.

1- Is this as good a deal as I think it is?

2- I know Creamsicles are a hybrid corn/rat. Can they only breed with other creams or can I get good offspring breeding them with my other corns?

3- Should I just not get new snakes now, avoiding having to give up one of my current snakes, and spend the money (it's rare to have extra around here) on a Herpstat and Ranco for my incubator and hatchling rack?

Please give me all the input you can... I am totally stuck as to what to do here. :please::confused:

Creams can breed with your other corns. Creams are awesome!! Do whatever YOU want to do!:D

I would go for the last option. Why would you have to give up a snake that you already own? And why would you want to? It'd put the snake and yourself in a lot of stress. I think that rather than spending money on bringing more animals into the house, you should put it towards the betterment of your already existing animals.

Yeah, that's the option my BF prefers as well (actually, he would prefer the money be saved or spent on other things...)

And I would have to get rid of someone because that's the deal. The only reason I have so many snakes in the first place is because I plan on breeding them to 'get some money back on their upkeep' (the money thing is his reason for letting me have them, so I'm not correcting him). Even with the breeding, he set a number limit. If I got new snakes now that weren't bred here, I would have to give up current snakes.

Really, the only thing keeping me from picking that last option outright is that a) the guy really wants to give these snakes a good new home, and I want to get them into one. And b) the price seems like a 'once-in-a-lifetime' sort of thing.

Any other opinions?

That's a good deal if they're 100% healthy, etc. You know the old saying, "if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is". But if you trust him could be a good deal.

As for breeding, you can breed them with whatever you want to corn wise. But you would still need to label the babies as hybrids, it would be dishonest not to.

As for whether or not you should get them, that's up to you. One thing I've learned is that I only now get snakes that I'm really pumped and want to work with, not to get them just to get them. So if you really REALLY want them, then go for them.

But if you're thinking of getting them, more or less for the sake of getting them, then I probably wouldn't.

Thanks, Matt. I was waiting to hear from one of the 'Corn people' here. :D

You're right, and although I like Creamsicles I don't think they would really fit into my "gang" here. :) It's a great deal, and I would love to get them into proper homes, but I think I'll pass.

However, I'm still going to keep my eyes open for a potential breedable female corn at the expo in August. Right now I have ghost and amel males and snow, hypobloodred, and anery females. With that group, what would you all suggest I look for in a new corn were I to get one? :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Argentra

Thanks, Matt. I was waiting to hear from one of the 'Corn people' here. :D

You're right, and although I like Creamsicles I don't think they would really fit into my "gang" here. :) It's a great deal, and I would love to get them into proper homes, but I think I'll pass.

---

Probably for the better then, I've gotten snakes on a whim, then a month or two later realized I wasn't that into them as I thought I'd be. Would always feel like a chore rather than a hobby with those snakes.

Now I make sure whenever I buy something that I really really REALLY want it. Now everything is a hobby again, and even though I have a good amount of 'chores' they don't feel that way.

Quote:

---

However, I'm still going to keep my eyes open for a potential breedable female corn at the expo in August. Right now I have ghost and amel males and snow, hypobloodred, and anery females. With that group, what would you all suggest I look for in a new corn were I to get one? :)

---

Well, you have hypo, anery, and amel in the mix with the males. And hypo, bloodred, anery, and amel with the girls, so some good overlap there, but would just give you more of the same.

If it was me I'd look for something that maybe had a gene or two in common with the males, but also had another gene thrown in, so you could start making some fun hets and neat snakes down the road. It all depends on what floats your boat.

Something like a hypo lavender or an amber female would be good. If you got a hypo lavender, you could breed her to your ghost to produce hypos het anery lavender. Then breed back the F2 and get hypo anery lavenders.

I don't know that anyone has produced any hypo anery lavenders, and if they have are pretty rare. Would be a good way to get in on something very unique and the F2 would totally unique from anything you already have.

Anything with ultra in the mix could be cool, golddust, ultramel anery. But again, its up to what floats your boat. But my vote is for the hypo anery lavender project.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by blueapplepaste

But my vote is for the hypo anery lavender project.

---

Practically everything I've seen with the lavender gene is awesome, and it is one that you don't have yet.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Argentra

Thanks, Matt. I was waiting to hear from one of the 'Corn people' here. :D

You're right, and although I like Creamsicles I don't think they would really fit into my "gang" here. :) It's a great deal, and I would love to get them into proper homes, but I think I'll pass.

However, I'm still going to keep my eyes open for a potential breedable female corn at the expo in August. Right now I have ghost and amel males and snow, hypobloodred, and anery females. With that group, what would you all suggest I look for in a new corn were I to get one? :)

---

AHA you want my corn..
She eats and sheds great! ...but thats about it.. hahaha.
She's such a little muncher, I love her to death though.. I couldn't ever give her up really. Even if she is virtually impossible to handle.

:]
Those are a good deal for creamsickles, however, I agree that they won't fit in very well and you should invest your money in somewhere else. ^^

....Oooo Lavender....:tongue2:

And a HYPO Lav?? Woh, total hotness! I would love a girl like that, but highly doubt I could afford her!

An Amber would be nice... but would a Crimson be a good addition? I really like the way they look (and yes, blackcrystal, yours is a nice girl :)).

I was also thinking about a Butter. Would that be cool? :)

Thanks for all the input, guys!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Argentra

....Oooo Lavender....:tongue2:

And a HYPO Lav?? Woh, total hotness! I would love a girl like that, but highly doubt I could afford her!

An Amber would be nice... but would a Crimson be a good addition? I really like the way they look (and yes, blackcrystal, yours is a nice girl :)).

I was also thinking about a Butter. Would that be cool? :)

Thanks for all the input, guys!

---

Crimson/Okeetee I actually wish I knew more about. I've been told that my snake being this 'morph' is actually some type of genetic swing off of a normal.
Being almost not a morph but a different coloration of a normal?

I don't know, I've looked it up a thousand times and gotten just as many different answers.
This website explains slightly what I'm trying to say..
http://www.serpenco.com/shop/custome...roductid=16412
Basically selective bred corns to get the brighter colors of a Crimson corn.
Similar to the pastels in the boa lines, where its not actually a morph but a selected breeding pattern.

Am I making sense?

Nope..

Anyway to answer your question, corn snake morphs price themselves nothing like ball python morphs. You could get a snow corn for the same price as a normal. Maybe a few dollars more. Its almost unfortunate.. But a nice looking corn can make a beautiful addition to any collection I think. Especially an Amber! :]
Who knows what'll pop out of my girl if/when I breed her. Should be interesting.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Argentra

....Oooo Lavender....:tongue2:

And a HYPO Lav?? Woh, total hotness! I would love a girl like that, but highly doubt I could afford her!

---

I don't know what your budget is, but a breedable hypo lav girl is going to cost some bucks. But you could find a yearling or a hatchling for not that much. Maybe even a lav het hypo would be good. I wouldn't get anything het lav as with the F1 you'd be working with poss hets.

Quote:

---

An Amber would be nice... but would a Crimson be a good addition? I really like the way they look (and yes, blackcrystal, yours is a nice girl :)).

I was also thinking about a Butter. Would that be cool? :)

Thanks for all the input, guys!

---

Crimson corns are just hypo miamis (which are just line bred normals). They're great looking snakes, but you wouldn't be diversifying your genetic pool.

I like ambers and butters, both of which have caramel in the mix. With those though, if you got a female to breed with your males, you'd just end up making more butters or ambers down the road, and not anything 'new'. Which is fine, but I think its always fun to make new stuff that you don't have in your collection.

Now a fun project would be to get a male amber to breed to your hypo blood female. That would be hypos het caramel blood in the F1 and then amber bloods in the F2. Total sweetness!

That little Hypo Bloodred is a big key in breeding plans... and of course she HAS to be the slowest grower I've ever seen! A year old and still the size of a hatchling... and I feed her the largest pinkies I can get every 5 days! SIGH. :) I'll be waiting a long time with her, but hopefully it'll be worth it since I plan on getting some Ghost Bloods in the F2 with her.

Ok, so my list includes Amber, Butter, and possibly a Hypo Lavender. Hmm, would just a Lavender not Hypo still be worthwhile? :)

Thank you SO much for the help, Matt. You rock! :gj::bow::partyon:

You already have the hypo gene in both your ghost and your hypo bloodred. So the question becomes what combinations do you want to be able to produce right away? If you get "just a lavender", your F1 generation out of that girl will be all normals het for lav & whatever you breed her to. But by F3, with careful planning (and some luck), you could make quite a few different things.

Since you have a limit on how many snakes you can keep, keeping everything you need to get the combinations you want in F3 might not be possible, so in your case, that adds another reason other than simply producing certain combos sooner.

I agree with Casey. You could just get a lavender, they're great looking snakes for sure. But a lavender het hypo or a hypo lav would mean morphs in the F1. So you'd be working with 1/16 odds for the F2 and not 1/64. If you bred your ghost to a lav, you'd get normals het lav anery and hypo; hence 1/64 for a triple homozygous. But if you could get hypos het lave anery in the F1, then only 1/16 for triple homozygous.

But even if you got a regular lav, you can't go wrong with them. They're just awesome! But again, it all comes down to what YOU like, the butter and ambers are also great morphs. Heck, maybe you should just pick up all three!! :banana:

Shot of one of my lavs for some convincing and inspiration!

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...-1011-full.jpg