What to buy? Advice, please!

[Redneck_Crow]

I'm going to be getting my females for future breeding this year. I don't want more than 6 females to start with. At most I'll probably keep 12 breeder females eventually. It's going to be a hobby for me, not a business. I want to get started on it now so that I can spend my dotage (10 years away from retirement) happily cleaning up snake turds.

So far I have a visual pied female, a het pied female, and a mojave female, all 2010s and growing like weeds. I'd like to start breeding 2013 or 2014.

I'm only getting 3 females this year, and the snake-buying budget is a max of $3000 for 3 more girls. I'm not into albinos, carmels, or spiders--nothing wrong with them, they just don't do much for me. I've got the female end of the blue eyed leutistic covered, and the pied covered.

The males will be bought in 2012 or 2013, and I'll be buying older proven breeders and giving them a year's quarrantine. I've got a $4000 budget for the guys. One for sure is going to be a visual pied, one is going to be either a superpastel or pastel yb, and one I'm not sure of yet--has to have something in the blue eyed leutistic complex mixed in there somewhere. If the guys carry any other genes and I can swing it to up my budget, I'll go for double or more gene animals. But we'll see.

So what females do you think I should be looking for within my budget? I want to get 3 visual morph females this year, single or double codom or dominant, that would give me the possibility of making a good variety of morphs with my chosen males. Whatever I get will be crossed with pieds at least once to get the het pieds to breed later to make pied versions of the morph. (Forgot to mention--I'm nuts about pied combos)

I already have set aside money for a couple of Boaphile ballroom racks and I have hatchling/juvie racks. I've also budgeted for incubators and rats.

I'm just looking for how you think I should spend my $3000 budget to get the 3 females that will give me the most versitility to make nice combos starting out. I figure at least a couple and probably three years of raising them up before I start breeding.

[PitOnTheProwl]

I'm surprised no one has chimed in here yet LOL
There are so many choices but with your budget I would really try to find the nicest female pastel you can get, there are so many combos you can get off the pastel.
As for two others, I dont have a clue without some type of spider in it.

[Redneck_Crow]

I love pastels, particularly when they're combined with other morphs. Even though pastels might not look that spectacular once they're adult, I appreciate how they kick up the heat on other morphs, especially the mojos, butters, or lessers. Either through the males or females I'm going to have to get some pastel in there somewhere.

I like the looks of spiders, and if they ever get a strain going that doesn't come with the wobbles, I might add them in someday. But right now I'm not keen on them. Knowing that I might end up with a snake that looks like it has the palsy kills all appeal they could otherwise have. I'm a nurse by trade and stuff like that reminds me too much of terrible things that I see every day. I know that is not logical and that some spiders have barely detectable wobbling, but I would be upset as heck if the best looking kid in the clutch was shaky. That is just me.

Thanks for your input!

[spiderz]

i got a spider from pro exotics and it does not have a wobble maybe as a rule of thumb they do... lol... but my spider has no thumbs

[dragonboy4578]

My last female purchase was 3 females. I bought a super cinnamon woma, mojove spider, and a pastel yellowbelly. I picked them up for just under you budget. I know that you said you weren't big on the spider, but I am sure that you could find something to replace that with. Maybe something on the lines of a pewter....Good luck

[PitOnTheProwl]

I would be upset as heck if the best looking kid in the clutch was shaky. That is just me.

Thanks for your input!

Then you just name it "Twitch"

[stratus_020202]

Then you just name it "Twitch"

Shame on you!!!! Lol.

OP: If you don't like spider, you can get something with a pinstripe in it. They make cool combo's as well. I personally like fire's, enchi's, you can even get into something new like the specter's or deserts.

Clowns make some pretty bad combos too. A clown pied. hello. Lol. Good luck!

[Redneck_Crow]

My last female purchase was 3 females. I bought a super cinnamon woma, mojove spider, and a pastel yellowbelly. I picked them up for just under you budget. I know that you said you weren't big on the spider, but I am sure that you could find something to replace that with. Maybe something on the lines of a pewter....Good luck

I like the pastel YBs a lot. I'm not so crazy about woma all on it's own, but I do like it in combinations. For me it's kinda like the vanilla ones or the ybs. Not so much all on it's own, but it does something great when it's mixed in with other stuff.

[Redneck_Crow]

Shame on you!!!! Lol.

OP: If you don't like spider, you can get something with a pinstripe in it. They make cool combo's as well. I personally like fire's, enchi's, you can even get into something new like the specter's or deserts.

Clowns make some pretty bad combos too. A clown pied. hello. Lol. Good luck!

I like the pinstripes. Haven't seen one yet, but I can only imagine that vanilla + pastel + pinstripe would be an awesome snake. Deserts are majorly cool, and so far they're out of my budget. I like fire + pastel. Those are some great looking snakes.

[D&J Reptiles]

With a grand per female you could always combine a few morphs and pick up a lemonblast and have the best of pastel and pinstripe. and agreeing with others the clown is an amazing addition... With the amount of genes you can combine there really is not any bad morphs for the money.