Quote Originally Posted by Mangiapane85 View Post
Why did she die??


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She died, I think because the house I kept her in was too small... I gave her a larger hide place, but she preferred the smaller one. I threw out that hide after she died. I think it was physical trauma (accidental) from dropping from the hide. I now use: https://www.amazon.com/Tot-Tutors-Pr...s+storage+bins with a hole cut out for the hides. Less cleaning hassle, less danger to the snake. (You have no idea how much I loved her. She had the personality of her mom, loved socializing, but was a pastel with an awesome pattern. I was planning to find her a nice boy lesser given her pattern....)

Anyway, I choose my normals very, very carefully. I'm very picky about what I want out of their pattern color and look. By being that picky and buying only from reputable breeders who care more about the welfare of the snakes, than getting a sale, I ensure that the normals also get sold. I buy snakes from different breeders to minimize incest, but will choose snakes that look similar in order to produce the results I want. I check parentage as well, before purchase to minimize issues.

In another words, I do the footwork and think hard about what I want for the welfare of the snakes, and in doing so can turn around normals fairly quickly for a better price than 20 dollars.

I still would love to see what my normal does to a yellow belly. I'm waiting on my male pastel (under 3 years old, son of the breeding pastel) to safely get up to a weight where he can breed my cinnamon. I'm pretty sure the yellow fade is dominant. So will the pewters also have the yellow fade he has? (Wouldn't that look awesome?)

So yeah, look carefully at the snakes you wish to purchase and purchase along similar patterns.

BTW, I purchased my original normal from lllreptile. While a pet shop, they work with breeders (I asked who their breeder was, etc), have snake first policy, etc. I put a lot of effort into specifying what I wanted and got one gorgeous snake from them. The males I bred to her I purchased from someone who got them from Graziani (I think the sp is correct). The cinnamon I bought is a different line, but since cinnamons came from Graziani, I figure it's better to breed the cinnamon to a male I know isn't a graziani, but at least a few generations removed.

It's totally worth your time to invest in the best looking normals possible--not only their health, but their pattern, background and parentage. Doing this will also minimize birth defects and show off your knowledge of genetics. I also think if you're a lot more selective overall, you could in effect create your own line/set of morphs through careful selection. I would love to develop a complete dorsal o-ring in my normals. Looks like it's mostly dominant.