Hi,

It depends on the amount of interbreeding you are ok with really.

All of this is working on the assumption you can't find a black pewter het axanthic.

And also that you are buying hatchlings in the fist place and taking the three years to raise the females to breeding size.

The main thing to be aware of is that the various lines of axanthics are not compatible ( er.. I think that's right - if it's wrong someone chime in ) so you need to decide on which line you want and make sure any animals you buy have the same bloodline.

If you can aford it then buying either a female axanthic and a pair or a single female het axanthic of the same line ( VPI, snakekeeper, jollife, TSK etc ) or ( if cash is really no object ) 2 unrelated female visual axanthics would mean you get fresh blood in evey breeding.

The visual female lets you avoid the whole poss het problem in the first generation so that any offspring would be at least 100% het axanthic and also either black pastel, pastel, black pewter or normal.

The second generation you could chance the poss hets produced by using a 100% het female - but a second visual female definately increases your odds.

Here is the breakdown of the results for each generation;

First generation;


Second generation using a visual female;


Second generation using a het female;


As you can see hitting the axanthic black pewter is a bit of a long shot.

But this is the pairing if you could find an axanthic pastel and an axanthic black pastel and bred them together;


I don't know about you but I like those odds better.


dr del