Kevin's 'A&K Exotics' 1st Year Breeding Question Thread

[RobNJ]

So basically is it stupid to buy pairs of everything if they will all be utilized?

Why would it be stupid if it fits into your plans? If you want to make supers of everything, you will need a male and female of your co-doms.

[Homegrownscales]

Well you could always breed the female of the desired morph. And hold back whatever of their sons to breed the following year. Yes it take a bit longer but I like to produce stuff myself.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

[RobNJ]

1.1 Black Pastels
1.0 Enchi
1.0 OG Mojave
1.0 Pastel Spotnose
0.1 Bumblebee
0.1 Lemonblast
0.1 Fire
0.1 High Contrast Albino
0.1 Spotnose
0.3-5 Normal
0.1 Butter Pastel (I tend to like the buttery qualities of butters as compared to lessers)

So, you don't actually have any of these snakes yet? Do you own any ball pythons yet? I'm just asking, because this is a pretty ambitious starting group for someone who already owns a few balls, let alone someone who doesn't. I'd suggest getting one or 2 and keep them for a year or so to make sure you actually enjoy keeping them. The worst thing that could happen is to acquire 15-20 snakes over a short period of time with plans to breed them 2-3 years down the road and then not enjoy keeping them at all.

[shaun1118]

IMO if you need the above questions answerd for you dont have the know how required to handle that many snakes at once. I think your massivly under estimating the work involved in keeping that many and breeding your own rats aswel. Id try gain some experience in keeping and breeding so you can iron out the creases and then add slowly to your collection.

Last thing you want to be doing is making a beginners mistake with several thousand grands worth of snakes. Clutch of pastel x normals no biggy.... a few clutchs with a estimated value of maybe 15-20k and your gonna be feeling suicidal

[kevinb]

Well you could always breed the female of the desired morph. And hold back whatever of their sons to breed the following year. Yes it take a bit longer but I like to produce stuff myself.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

True, true, that could be a way to go.

So, you don't actually have any of these snakes yet? Do you own any ball pythons yet? I'm just asking, because this is a pretty ambitious starting group for someone who already owns a few balls, let alone someone who doesn't. I'd suggest getting one or 2 and keep them for a year or so to make sure you actually enjoy keeping them. The worst thing that could happen is to acquire 15-20 snakes over a short period of time with plans to breed them 2-3 years down the road and then not enjoy keeping them at all.

Currently no, I do not have an ball pythons. However I did have two, a mojave pos het oG and a Pastel male. I loved them to death and was devestated when I had to get rid of them due to my mom. They were seriously the best pet I think I have ever owned. What I don't think anyone fully understands is that, yes it's a somewhat larger list for a noobie, but I won't be getting anything for probably another year, perhaps longer. I also will not be aquiring all these snakes at once. It will probably take my 2-3+ years to get all I am aiming for in my first years breedings. Logically I will probably get as many of the lower cost base morph females first (around 3 to start I would imagine) and just build from there until I have all the females I need, grow them for a few years, then continue the quest with the males. There is no point in dropping more money then necessary when females take 3-4 years to reach maturity. I mean yes I am in persuit to become a nurse, but even so nurses don't make millions. To be more straight forward here is my idea in a nutshell:

1.) Research research research for the next year
2.) Get my own apartment with my girlfriend and judge the space I have available for racks, along with average temps, humidity, etc.
3.) Build a couple racks, and rat racks, along with a incubator
4.) Get a trio of ASF and try my hands at breeding, freezing what ever pups may produce for when snakes arrive.
5.) Obtain between 3-5 base morph females, most likely 3, and over the course of a few months to cut down on up front cost
6.) build on until I have all the females I am looking for (a year or two+ I imagine)
7.) Grow said females until they are almost of breeding size
8.) start to obtain my males over the course of that said year or more
9.) When all have reached breeding maturity select 3 females to breed that year (I don't want to get over my head with babies)
10.) Try my hand at hatching out a clutch

Like I said before everyone seems to think I will be doing all this in like 3 months....not going to happen, sure I'll be making better money than now, but I still have other bills as priorities first. It's going to take a while..as most things do. Patience is a virtue.

IMO if you need the above questions answerd for you dont have the know how required to handle that many snakes at once. I think your massivly under estimating the work involved in keeping that many and breeding your own rats aswel. Id try gain some experience in keeping and breeding so you can iron out the creases and then add slowly to your collection.

Last thing you want to be doing is making a beginners mistake with several thousand grands worth of snakes. Clutch of pastel x normals no biggy.... a few clutchs with a estimated value of maybe 15-20k and your gonna be feeling suicidal

I get where you're coming from, but just because I asked essencially if people will buy pairs of codoms for supers, I don't understand how that impunes my knowledge? I'm not saying your wrong or right, I just don't see how me asking for an opinion can lead to me being stupid? I know how supers are made, I just know several people go different ways about it, whether they get a pair of codoms, or they get a base morph codom and a 2-3 gene animal with the codom in it, or then ever just breed the codom to a normal and get the other sex codom from the breeding to raise up and breed back to mom or dad. I know quite a bit about ball pythons, I just prefer asking questions, as compared to doing something stupid and getting the whole snake world angry. And yes the clutchs I might procduce will be very pricey in terms of retail value, but hey I'm really doing it for the sake of creating new never seen snakes, not because I care about how much money is in it. If I cared about money I'd be doing something much different, where live animals aren't involved. Plus I have heard and read that the snakes that sell fastest are the $1-2k snakes. I know what I want and how to get there, it just takes time, something everyone on here should know about. It's all a waiting game.

[kevinb]

So after thinking long and hard about it I have decided to start pff with 4 base morphs and work my way to my goal list....the 4 are.

1.0 butter
1.0 black pastel
0.1 pastel
0.1 spotnose

[Royal Hijinx]

The other issue to consider is time. You had the thread about nursing school and medical school. Both are no joke and take up quite a bit of time, especially if you have to work while going. Most folks cannot go to school for 6 or more years without working as well. I go to school full time for my NP, and thanks to my position in the Navy, that is my only job right now. 5 snakes, a frog and a dog take a lot of work. I imagine dozens of snakes would be too much, especially with rat breeding as well.

You do not feel like doing a heck of a lot when working several 12 hour shifts in a row AND going to school. And whole BPs are pretty low maintenance, they are not zero maintenance. And, adding rat breeding on top of that it is that much more work.

This is not to dissuade lofty goals, but a reality check.

[JohnNJ]

The other issue to consider is time. You had the thread about nursing school and medical school. Both are no joke and take up quite a bit of time, especially if you have to work while going. Most folks cannot go to school for 6 or more years without working as well. I go to school full time for my NP, and thanks to my position in the Navy, that is my only job right now. 5 snakes, a frog and a dog take a lot of work. I imagine dozens of snakes would be too much, especially with rat breeding as well.

You do not feel like doing a heck of a lot when working several 12 hour shifts in a row AND going to school. And whole BPs are pretty low maintenance, they are not zero maintenance. And, adding rat breeding on top of that it is that much more work.

This is not to dissuade lofty goals, but a reality check.

Kevin has a alot of free time hence the posts.

Kevin - are there any breeders near you that you can make friends with? Volunteer to help clean and take care of snakes/rodents for this person and learn a little. You can play with snakes and then back off if time gets short, like during exams. Then you can get into your own program when the time is right.

Good luck.

[kevinb]

I don't really have that much free time to be honest I just use my phone which is always with my, type quick, and know what I'm going to to check.

Yes things are a lot of work, currently my two prioritites are working (9-12) a day, then come home to clean up the house which takes up the rest of my day depending. If I play my cards right I shouldn't have to be IN class for atleast the next 3 years, in which ill come out AAS RN, its then another two years to BS RN which will be more hands on and challenging, but hey the hospital is paying for my schooling not me. Then I have to find a school to get my NP degree if I even feel like going that far by that point. Its work yes but no one on here truely knows what I can and cannot handle. I have the weight of about 5 people on my shoulders and I do just fine. I pay my bills on time, I keep the house clean and everyone in it happy, and I even have spare time after everything to do something for myself. Everyone makes it out to be so difficult, to some it might, but when I had my 2 bps, 1 garter, 3 leopard geckos, and my fish, along with my hampster and birds.....I took my day off on wednesdays and feed, cleaned, ect. And it only took me what? Like an hour at the most. I just said I would be starting with 4 and gaining more through the 2013-2014 years. 4 snakes is not that bad, and with that little I could just have a 1.2 trio of asf and had their tanks satisfied.

So thanks for telling me how you think things are and I'm not trying to be rude because I do enjoy constructive criticism, but I also take it more seriously when the person actually knows me and what I can handle. I've had a hard life as a kid, either being cold or hot because we couldn't afford ac or heating in the winter, my mom would take what ever money I made to pay bills or heat the house. I was pretty much on my own at 16, I was shoved in adulthood the hard way because of this. I can handle a lot more than most, as I said my OCD for neatness and cleanliness keeps me on top of my game.


So thanks for the comments, but don't judge me based on my position on an online forum.

[kevinb]

Kevin has a alot of free time hence the posts.

Kevin - are there any breeders near you that you can make friends with? Volunteer to help clean and take care of snakes/rodents for this person and learn a little. You can play with snakes and then back off if time gets short, like during exams. Then you can get into your own program when the time is right.

Good luck.

I do appreciate this post. Thanks John.