What is the most cost effective start for breeding morphs?

I'm looking at getting into breeding in the next few years but I won't have much capital to start off with(who does?) and I don't want to make a decision I'll regret.

Right now I have an unsexed normal that I'll get sexed in a few weeks. I've always loved snakes and its something I see myself doing for a long time. Anyways would I be best served to get some het albinos or some yellow bellies or something else? A mojave in there maybe?

I don't want to spend more than $1,000 on the snakes themselves. I know that's not much but from what I see on kingsnake and some other places, 100% hets and yellow bellies(het ivories) aren't going to break the bank for what I want to do. Basically I'd like to start off with 1 or 2 clutches and go from there. I do know I have to look for quality, I won't go getting crap morphs or anything and I'll do research before I buy from someone. I'd rather have one good morph and breed it to my normal than 2 or 3 iffy morphs to breed together.

Normal females, I'd shoot for codom males to start with. Hets can be a real challenge. I'd shoot for spider, mojo, pastel, and maybe cinny males.

Well hopefully my normal is female. If not I'll basically keep it as a pet(which i was planning on anyways), pick up a few normal females as breeders and a co-dom male or two if I can swing it.

I do love the ivories though, i'd love to grab up a few YBs and try to hit an ivory right off the bat. Black/red eyes, white with a yellow stripe...what is NOT to like about those things?!

But then I see things like an ad for a male cinny/female pastel for $400 shipped and I want to jump on that... Lol I need my own place first which is happening this December but planning well in advance never hurt anyone. This means I won't be breeding this season but I still want to grab up some snakes to grow up for the season after.

I know I need to decide on one or two things and stick with them since I'll be small, then branch out.

Definitely pastels. Possibly cinnies and spiders. Only do Hets if you trust the breeder they come from or you may find you spent the extra $ for a normal. Of course, there's nothing wrong with a collection of nice normals. :)

Most newbys don't get into YBs real quick because it takes a trained eye to tell the difference between them and normals. Still having trouble myself. Most new breeders want to see different visuals. Ivories are very nice to me too, as a matter of fact I will be getting my first YB project Sept 13 from Adam.

The ones you can afford;)
and the ones that you like, you are gonna be cleaning poop for a long time so it should make you go:banana:

If you like ivories that much go for a pair of YBs, and maybe a pastel female. That would be within your budget, and you'd be able to produce YBs, ivories, pastels, pastel yellow bellies and normals, Then in a year you can get super pastels and pastel ivories, too.

Or you could find an 07 female YB and get another 08 male co-dom that you like for that price. Make combos first, then in a year you'd be able to go for the ivories. You have a ton of possabilities, just go for what you like the most.

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

The ones you can afford;)
and the ones that you like, you are gonna be cleaning poop for a long time so it should make you go:banana:

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Might be the best advice I've ever heard!!:gj:

Start off buying normal, pastel and yellowbellie females!! Then buy a male co dom of your choice after the females are all yearlings!

Get a male and female albino, it will be close but you should be able to find someone willing to sell you a pair for 1k.

Everyone loves albinos, and their price has been staying pretty steady

You could do what I'm doing.

I'm shooting for all the basic morphs and some nice normals here and there. Pastels, Spiders, Mojaves, Cinnys, YBs, and hopefully a Lesser in my future.
If I'm looking for hets I'm going for Het Albino, Het Axanthic, or Het Gen. Stripe.

That's my basic starting strategies for like.. the first 10 years. Aha.

Smart money is on all females

Raise them up

Sell what you don't want

Use that money for some wicked breeder males

I'd do all females pastels----

get them 300 plus grams

Low Ball, it's your money

Those Big Girls you sell will pay off most of your start up costs

Save Re> Genes for later

Build Equity

Nothing expensive

Make your mice and rats make you money in weight

This Works-----

Some good points here. My advice would be, don't expect to make any money. In fact, you will most likely spend more than you will ever recoup. If you eventually make a few bucks to cover your costs then you are ahead of the game! Good luck!

Like you I also started with a normal (female) that was given to me.

After that, I opted for a female pastel (Nerd line) and I´m buying a male spider (will be arriving in 2 weeks!). As you may suspect, I´m a fan of bees...

This is my starting 1.2. Dom and co-dom only with a lot of future possibilities of very nice morphs and combos

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Originally Posted by jglass38

Some good points here. My advice would be, don't expect to make any money. In fact, you will most likely spend more than you will ever recoup. If you eventually make a few bucks to cover your costs then you are ahead of the game! Good luck!

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Best post of the thread get in cause you love and want to produce your designers or crazy beautiful super Bp's. I have to say get what makes your toes tingle.LOL That's a quote from one of the 72 dolphins when he's excited about a new dolphins pick up. Out of everything mentioned a cinny male and pastel female make a lot of sense.

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Originally Posted by JoMo

Like you I also started with a normal (female) that was given to me.

After that, I opted for a female pastel (Nerd line) and I´m buying a male spider (will be arriving in 2 weeks!). As you may suspect, I´m a fan of bees...

This is my starting 1.2. Dom and co-dom only with a lot of future possibilities of very nice morphs and combos

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I'm actually doing just about the same thing :D. I started off with just a normal female, I just got a male spider from NERD and I just picked up a nice little pastel female plus (kind of a not really planned for bonus) I got a 1600g normal proven breeder female also. So, right now I only have the one male but he's a beauty and eating great so next year I can probably pair him up with the proven breeder to try for some spiders and then in a couple years once the pastel girly is growed up try for some bees :gj:.

But in answer to the OPs questions I say go with what makes you happy! If you want to try for the ivories get yourself a pair of YBs from a breeder you trust. I know NERD had an exceptional looking pair of YBs from a proven het ivory line for about $600 a couple weeks ago. Good luck to ya!

Hmmm well I do eventually want to try and make money off this while doing whatever small part I can to better the herp world and these snakes in general. I'm fully prepared to put the time/effort in to do this right. I just need to get moved into a new house(december) and get settled before I pull the trigger on anything.

My goal is to get setup this winter/spring as far as a place, equipment etc... then get some snakes next spring/summer to breed for the 09 season. I'd like to grab a mojave, a cinny, a pastel some normal females and maybe something else if I can afford it. Probably 1 male for all that. How many females can 1 male reliably breed? I've heard of guys doing 11 females with 1 male!

listen to the previous posts..........there is some good info and advice. Raise up some normal females and maybe a pastel female or 2....or 3. I am partial to the simple recessive morphs like pieds,albinos,clowns,.......but its up to you! That is the fun part of this game. Spiders,Pastels,Cinny's, Mojos, are going to be your staple morphs so you can't miss with any of these paired up with a normal female.

But if I had a 1K to spend and I was just starting out.........I would get a few normal females, a spider male, and a pair of het somethings'.........either pieds or albinos. Basically though, like Raul said, at the end of the day you are cleaning the cages.........so you have to like what you choose........:)

I'm with everyone else...raise up or buy large normal females and get going with the codoms. Worry about the recessives later, they'll come in time. If anything raise up normal females to sell as breeder females there are always people looking for good solid adult females for their breeding projects. Most of all try to keep it fun!

Get some normal females and possible hets close to breeding size, then get some males to go with them about a year before everyone is ready to breed. Then the next year you should be good to go.

If your thinking of hets I would recommend female possible hets.. they are alot cheaper than 100% hets, basically for the price of one 100% female you can buy a whole clutch of 66% and you know for sure at least one or two will be hets.. the secret is trying to buy an entire clutch..

I am in the process of buying 1x100% proven breeder het pied male, 4x66% het females and 4x50% females all within your budget, heck i could get the heat tape and rack built within your budget too... I figure at least 3 will turn out hets with a chance at 4-5 being hets. and if they dont prove out I can sell them as normals for more than I paid anyhow.

Good luck! There are so many options!

Richard

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Originally Posted by Somed00d

If your thinking of hets I would recommend female possible hets.. they are alot cheaper than 100% hets, basically for the price of one 100% female you can buy a whole clutch of 66% and you know for sure at least one or two will be hets.. the secret is trying to buy an entire clutch..

I am in the process of buying 1x100% proven breeder het pied male, 4x66% het females and 4x50% females all within your budget, heck i could get the heat tape and rack built within your budget too... I figure at least 3 will turn out hets with a chance at 4-5 being hets. and if they dont prove out I can sell them as normals for more than I paid anyhow.

Good luck! There are so many options!

My Collection: 3.2 Mojave 4.9 Normal + 3 Eggs (Lesser? x Normal) + 1.8 top secret coming soon!


Richard

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Hey man- you just let the cat out of the bag! Your sig says 1.8 top secret coming soon.....you just explained what the 1.8 is.
Strong work!

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Originally Posted by Somed00d

If your thinking of hets I would recommend female possible hets.. they are alot cheaper than 100% hets, basically for the price of one 100% female you can buy a whole clutch of 66% and you know for sure at least one or two will be hets.. the secret is trying to buy an entire clutch..

I am in the process of buying 1x100% proven breeder het pied male, 4x66% het females and 4x50% females all within your budget, heck i could get the heat tape and rack built within your budget too... I figure at least 3 will turn out hets with a chance at 4-5 being hets. and if they dont prove out I can sell them as normals for more than I paid anyhow.

Good luck! There are so many options!

Richard

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Good advice here although I don't want to put all my proverbial eggs into 1 basket(or incubator in our case). I think pieds are cool, but I think I'd be happier with a yellow belly male, a YB female, a female pastel and something else if I could swing it. Or should I just be concentrating on one type of the more..."expensive" morphs like pieds or bees or clowns etc... And by that I mean getting some hets and breeding up. Hell a few YBs are cool to get ivories as well as the YB gene making some sick looking pastels too when you throw a pastel into the mix.

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Originally Posted by monk90222

Hey man- you just let the cat out of the bag! Your sig says 1.8 top secret coming soon.....you just explained what the 1.8 is.
Strong work!

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i know.. shhhh..

The codom thing is a very rewarding way to get started, cuz at the end of the week when you want to see what your thousands and thousands of dollars has put in your racks its much more rewarding to hold a mojo or pastel or yellowbelly or whatever you get, than to see a whole bunch of normal looking snakes. The time and the money of this hobby is somewhat overwhelming and a visual reassurance of what your spending so much time on is always good.

As far as what you decide, as what has already been said get females first and males will be cheaper by the time the females are ready to breed and you will have months and months to think about what you want to breed them with and see how your opinions change over the next year or two.