Beginner Mistakes?

[prettyballsy]

Hey there, I'm looking for input on newbie mistakes in two areas:

- Starting your collection of morphs with the intent to try breeding at some point. For example, I think I'm going to invest the $ money on two combo morphs off the bat rather than bunch of single morphs that would take much longer to create what I want and have the expense of taking care of more snakes.

- Initial first-time breeder mistakes.

I've been doing a LOT of research into what morphs I'd like in my collection and, eventually, what snakes I'd like to create for my collection. I'm nowhere near buying yet. Instead I'm learning more and more by caring for my normals and spending my money on proper set up for more snakes (decided to build my first snake rack rather than buy one for now and see how it goes), making sure my budget is such that I can care for what I would have (food, possible vet bills, etc.). Since I'm just excited about having the snakes, the only research into selling babies I've done is basically making sure I could sell the ones I don't want so that I don't have the expense of feeding them. I've talked to a pet store about taking baby normals in exchange for rats and think I have that set up for the future, if necessary. I'm not too concerned about being able to sell any morphs I might be lucky enough to produce but don't want to keep. That would all be far in the future anyway. Mostly I'm trying to lay out all the possible things that could go right, things that can go wrong so I can prepare. I don't want to have snakes I can't care for by getting over my head. Its easy to do, I think!

Lastly, is it stupid to buy my snakes based on temperment? Obviously, I'm not going to pay for a bad example of a morph but I'm interested in a small collection of pets that I can potentially breed to make more cool pets. I like hanging out with them so I think my focus might be different than someone totally focused on the business aspect of breeding. If I had a choice between two fireflies, one a great example of the morph but nasty and one a good example of the morph but more docile and easier to make a people-friendly snake....I'd choose the good snake over the great snake. Is that foolish? I keep imagining the look on the breeders face when I say, "Send me the friendlier one."

[snakesRkewl]

The biggest factor to learning to breed is learning to properly care for the snake in the first place, some ppl pick it up fast and are good at it right away, others learn husbandry through accidents and mishaps.
Study, read, ask questions, make friends in the hobby, join groups on facebook or whatever it takes to get the knowledge your seeking, it's out there if you're passionate enough about the hobby it will suck you in and take over your life, haha, semi joking...

IMO it is foolish to buy snakes based on disposition

A big mistake many noobies make starting a collection is buying a snake with the cost being the main factor.
If you buy nothing but quality examples of the prospective morphs then you stand a high chance of making quality babies which are WAY easier to sell then average examples or worse.
EXAMPLE: you want a black pastel male, you see a decent one for $250 shipped and a very hot one for $325 shipped, do you take the "ok" one that will make "ok" babies or the hot one that will make babies that people drool over and want to buy...

Buying combos can be a mistake if you don't know what the parents of the snakes look like, especially buying super traits like Ivory or BEL's etc.
A very hot ivory can be made with very plain jane blah looking yellowbelly's which in turn will be much more difficult to sell than making smokin hot flamed up yellowbelly's.

Buy traits that you want to make AND are sell-able offspring, you should always be prepared to keep what you make, but making somewhat popular morphs and combo's makes selling the extras much easier.

Good luck

[Wapadi]

1. Thermostates!!! One of rookie mistakes was buying a cheap thermostat and burning our snake when it shorted. Spend the money and do it right!
2. Buy Females first!! I know they are more expensive but if you add up the cost of keeping the male till a female is ready you will spend way more!
3. I completely agree with above. Spend the extra and get AWESOME looking snakes and not great deal snakes.
4. 99.9% of the time you can change the temperment of a ball. Do not walk away from a perfect baby bc he is nippy!
5. Give seriuos consideration to breeding your own food. Way cheaper in the long run and you then have the peace of mind of know exactly what your snakes are eating.


And last remember to have FUN!!

[prettyballsy]

IMO it is foolish to buy snakes based on disposition


Buy traits that you want to make AND are sell-able offspring, you should always be prepared to keep what you make, but making somewhat popular morphs and combo's makes selling the extras much easier.

Yeah, I was pretty sure buying the "friendlier" snake was kinda stupid and I wouldn't if I was buying a juvenile but if I'd been able to pick up an adult.....well having this awesome snake I couldn't hold without getting tagged on a regular basis would just suck lol. So, yeah, buying a juvenile I can work with.

Here's the breakdown on the two snakes I'm saving to pick up. Axanthic Pastel and FireBee. Initially was going to focus on Firefly and still might depending upon the expense...we'll see.

Genetic Wizard 3.0 calculations by


Breed the hets back and maybe, just maybe, I'll get the axanthic morphs I want.

Any opinion on whether it matters which morph I buy as female or male?

Thanks for the input!

- - - Updated - - -

Not sure what happened to the genetic wizard results. I cut/pasted the code

[RoseyReps]

I would imagine getting the more expensive of the two as a male, and the less expensive of the two female. (ex: FireBee male firebee 1300, male ax.pastel 1000, get the firebee..made up the prices, i have no idea what the two are going for) I've heard it's a good idea to breed a genetically superior male to a less genetic female, never the other way around. But what the heck do I know, I'm a newbie too

[prettyballsy]

1. Thermostates!!! One of rookie mistakes was buying a cheap thermostat and burning our snake when it shorted. Spend the money and do it right!
2. Buy Females first!! I know they are more expensive but if you add up the cost of keeping the male till a female is ready you will spend way more!
3. I completely agree with above. Spend the extra and get AWESOME looking snakes and not great deal snakes.
4. 99.9% of the time you can change the temperment of a ball. Do not walk away from a perfect baby bc he is nippy!
5. Give seriuos consideration to breeding your own food. Way cheaper in the long run and you then have the peace of mind of know exactly what your snakes are eating.


And last remember to have FUN!!

1. Thermostat - I'm on it. The idea of burning my snakes is horrible!
2. Females first - yep. Any thoughts on which morph should be the female out of this combo? Axanthic Pastel or Firebee? Going to try and breed the hets back to the axanthic in the end.
3. I'm saving the $ now. Quit smoking to fund it!
4. Ok, suck it up and work with the snippy snake. Got it
5. Ok, I've looked into this and here's the thing. I've been tagged by my snake before. Not fun but no big deal either. Mean rats on the other hand? THEY freak me out. My daughters boyfriend has a red-tailed boa. I'm currently trying to convince him that if I buy the materials for a rat rack and buy the initial breeder pair, help with the bedding/food/etc.....we could share the food and he keeps them at his house lol. I think I'm wearing him down....

Thanks for the advice

[MasonC2K]

I have nothign of value for this thread. I just wanted to mention that due to a smudge on my screen I read the title as "Beginner Milkshakes" and had a WTF moment followed by a ROFLMAO at my self once seeing what it actually was.

[prettyballsy]

I would imagine getting the more expensive of the two as a male, and the less expensive of the two female. (ex: FireBee male firebee 1300, male ax.pastel 1000, get the firebee..made up the prices, i have no idea what the two are going for) I've heard it's a good idea to breed a genetically superior male to a less genetic female, never the other way around. But what the heck do I know, I'm a newbie too

Here's a link to the Firebees at Constrictors Unlimited. http://pythonregius.com/firebeeballpython.aspx

I'm having a little more trouble tracking down axanthic pastels. There are other ways to make the combos I'm interested in. Axanthic Pastel x Fire Spider, Axanthic and Fire Bee. Axanthic spider x Fire Fly.

I think I might pick upa good quality proven breeder Axanthic female. I'm not sure if people don't like them or there's not much of a market, but they just aren't that hard to find. Then I'd save up for the Fire combo male. Maybe?

- - - Updated - - -

I have nothign of value for this thread. I just wanted to mention that due to a smudge on my screen I read the title as "Beginner Milkshakes" and had a WTF moment followed by a ROFLMAO at my self once seeing what it actually was.

Seriously? Now I've got that ridiculous milkshake song stuck in my head!

[joebad976]

I have nothign of value for this thread. I just wanted to mention that due to a smudge on my screen I read the title as "Beginner Milkshakes" and had a WTF moment followed by a ROFLMAO at my self once seeing what it actually was.

[RoseyReps]

My sweetsnake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, mine's better than yours
Hun please, yours isn't a morph
I could teach you but I'd have to charge.