In 2002 I purchased my first mojave from Dan and Colette Southerland (The Snake Keeper). My friend Dwayne Richard (Dan and Colette's partner) along with Dan and Colette hand picked what they thought were the best 3 mojaves that they produced that season. I met Dan, Colette and Dwayne at their booth at the Anaheim Show and picked from this group of 3 mojaves. These mojaves were being held off of the table until I had made my choice. That mojave was by far the nicest looking mojave I had ever seen. I took that snake home and in a few months bred him to several of my best looking normals, not just any normals, but they had to explode with color. From there I bred those babies back to their parents and kept holding back the best ones and breeding from them. If I had to take a guess I'd say that 80 to 90 % of the snakes in my collection were produced by me. Most people don't realize that most of my pastels are related, all of my mojaves and mojave combos are related, all of my pieds are related, all of my clowns are related, all of my crystals and the list goes on.
I always recommend that new ball python breeders should start off by purchasing the snake they have been dreaming about owning. If the snake is outrageously expensive then better yet. I've saved up for over a year to purchase several of the snakes that I wanted in my collection.
It was while breeding colubrids that I realized that if I produced a very high quality baby king snake I could ask a higher price and if the quality was there I could get 2 and sometimes 3 times over the market value for the kings, milks and corns that I sold. When I switched over to ball pythons I mostly purchased from those breeders that were actively focused on incorporating a selective breeding program.
If you want to produce beautiful snakes, breed from beautiful snakes, if you want to produce beautiful horses then breed from beautiful horses and if you want to produce beautiful kids, well you get the picture....LOL
Brian Gundy / For Goodness Snakes / 408-981-6694 / fgsnakes@sbcglobal.net
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