Wanting to add another bp to my collection, but not sure what to do.

[appygirl84]

I'm fairly new to owning ball pythons, but have decided that I want to add to my collection. One of the reasons for adding another snake is I'd like to take advantage of the fact that I have 5 breeding age females and try to breed this year.
Here is the kicker all five females are VPI Het Axanthic, I thought they were black at first, but found out they are het red. I haven't found a Red Axanthic male that is in my price range, but I have found a few affordable het axanthic males. The thing is I can't decide if I should breed them to a Het axanthic to try for axanthics, or if I should buy a codom male and see what patterns I get.
I love bumblebees, but I know if I breed a bumblebee to my girls that I won't get any axanthics.
I'm considering buying a bumblebee and a het axanthic, and double breeding the females. Does anyone think that is a good idea? The only obvious problem I forsee is that I will not know what the normals carry.
I am a sucker for Mojaves and Spiders, and figure that if I can pick up a female of each that eventually they'd be great to breed to the bumblebee. Or is it just silly to breed a mojave to a bumblebee?

Currently I have: 0.5 VPI het axanthic females, 1.0 jungle pastel, 0.1 super pastel Neither pastel will be ready this year. I know that 3 of the females will be ready to breed this year, two of the other ones I want to put a little weight on before breeding.

My boyfriend also wants orange ghosts, I don't know if we should get a het. orange ghost pair, or if I should just save up the extra to buy an orange ghost. That way we have our orange ghost regardless and don't have to worry about breeding for one. I really want a bumblebee, they are my favorite morph.

What do y'all think? What would you do?

[MitsuMike]

So they are all het red axanthic? I would say get something that is red axanthic. If you buy 1 male with 5 females being het I'm sure it will be worth the money having all 5 females being red het. Or get a red het male.
Or if you don't care then you could always just breed any morph you want (codom or dom) and it would just be like breeding to a normal normal.

Just searched Kingsnake and found a few het red axanthic males.

[Action Reptiles]

Well first off do you have het vpi axanthics or het red axanthics??? These are 2 different morphs and from my understanding not compatible. Your optimal pick up would be a spider male het axanthic(if you have vpi hets). This would give you axanthics,spider axanthics and you could use him with your pastels for bee's poss het axanthics. That option might be out of your price range though. You could get a het axanthic male and a male spider so you could produce axanthics now and bee's poss nextyear. There is a bunch of different ways you can go depending on what you have to spend and what you want to make...

Its all up to you but make sure you have the right het axanthics before buying your male....

[appygirl84]

Aww heck I'm confused again! I know they are VPI. I guess I got confused because of something else. I was thinking about getting a bumblebee because I like them, and maybe double expose the females to the bee and a het male? Or is that a bad idea?

I found a few het axanthic males thanks to a pm on this sight. I was also thinking a spider het axanthic male would be ideal, then the price I found made me a sad panda. For less than $800 I think I can get the bumblebee male and the het axanthic though, so I'm kind of leaning that way.
I want the excitement of hoping for more than just normals when the eggs hatch.
I have horses and I bred a leopard appaloosa to my nc solid app mare. Sadly the stud was gelded afterward, and when the foal was a yearling my mare died... so no way I could ever try again. I loved both of those horses and had such high hopes. But back to my point, I was there when Doc gave birth and I kept waiting for a pattern. Any pattern... a blaze, a sock, a star.... and yes I was hoping for spots. The foal just kept coming out solid chestnut, and then she had a coronet band on her hind leg, that was it. It was jointly one of the most exciting and equally disappointing moments in my life. The fact that the mare died and that the resulting filly is a beautiful "donkey" doesn't help.
I'm hoping breeding my girls won't be like that.

[unspecified42]

Personally if I had 0.5 breeding age het axanthics I would be saving up and getting an axanthic!!

I'm not a big fan of het-to-het breeding (for myself) because I'd rather know for sure that the offspring will at least be hets and not normals.

[Paysons Bps]

I'm fairly new to owning ball pythons, but have decided that I want to add to my collection. One of the reasons for adding another snake is I'd like to take advantage of the fact that I have 5 breeding age females and try to breed this year.
Here is the kicker all five females are VPI Het Axanthic, I thought they were black at first, but found out they are het red. I haven't found a Red Axanthic male that is in my price range, but I have found a few affordable het axanthic males. The thing is I can't decide if I should breed them to a Het axanthic to try for axanthics, or if I should buy a codom male and see what patterns I get.
I love bumblebees, but I know if I breed a bumblebee to my girls that I won't get any axanthics.
I'm considering buying a bumblebee and a het axanthic, and double breeding the females. Does anyone think that is a good idea? The only obvious problem I forsee is that I will not know what the normals carry.
I am a sucker for Mojaves and Spiders, and figure that if I can pick up a female of each that eventually they'd be great to breed to the bumblebee. Or is it just silly to breed a mojave to a bumblebee?

Currently I have: 0.5 VPI het axanthic females, 1.0 jungle pastel, 0.1 super pastel Neither pastel will be ready this year. I know that 3 of the females will be ready to breed this year, two of the other ones I want to put a little weight on before breeding.

My boyfriend also wants orange ghosts, I don't know if we should get a het. orange ghost pair, or if I should just save up the extra to buy an orange ghost. That way we have our orange ghost regardless and don't have to worry about breeding for one. I really want a bumblebee, they are my favorite morph.

What do y'all think? What would you do?

I would buy a bumble bee, they just have one of the best color in them. Acually one of my favorite morphs as well. If you breed your bee to an axanthic, you can produce axanthic spiders witch are just an amazing looking snake.

Good luck!!!
-Payson!

[appygirl84]

Yeah I'm leaning towards the bumblebee myself. Maybe I'll breed half the hets to a male bee and the other half to a het axanthic. It lowers my chances for getting axanthics, but I'll be happy with the variety the bumblebee gives me.

[MitsuMike]

Yea if your VPI your not red axanthic. I would almost say breeding a normal codom to a het normal is pointless because your not getting the whole value of having het. I mean if you got a pin het VPI or spider het VPI and you hit the axanthic spider or pin your rolling with the big dogs and those snakes are worth the big bucks and WELL worth buying the expensive male. Your odds are on your side to make it happen