Breeding 1 of 3 types with my Axanthic Spider....which one?

[the_rotten1]

Well, with a lesser female you'll get normals, lessers, spiders, and lesser bees that are het for axanthic (that means you can't see the axanthic gene, because it's recessive).

With an axanthic lesser you'll get axanthics, axanthic spiders, axanthic lessers, and axanthic lesser bees. (These babies are visual recessives. You can see the gene because they have two copies of it, one from each parent.)

With a het red axanthic lesser you would get normals, spiders, het red axanthics, lessers, spider het reds, lesser het reds, lesser bees, and het red lesser bees. All would be het for axanthic. (The het red axanthic gene is very different from the axanthic gene. It's co-dominant, not recessive. So with this last option you're adding a fourth gene to your breeding plans. The first two options deal with three genes.)

As you can see, the first two options would be capable of producing four different types of offspring while the last option would give you eight possible types, so the het red axanthic lesser is the winner if you want variety. The visual axanthics (the babies from a lesser axanthic female) would be worth more money, but you would have to make sure that both snakes are from the same line of axanthics. A lot of lines aren't compatible, and if they're not compatible the babies won't be visual recessives. Do you know which line your male is from?

Then you have to think about whether or not you like the look of all the possible morphs you're going to get. If you like yellow in your snakes, the plain lesser might produce babies that are more pleasing to you. If you go with an axanthic lesser than all your snakes will be axanthic, so no yellow and more grays and browns. The het red would also give you grays and browns, but with yellow and without as much red. You should google some of these snakes or find them on the world of ball pythons morph list and see if you like how they look.

Here's a link to the morph list: http://www.worldofballpythons.com/morphs/?
They also have a genetics wizard which will show you what offspring you get from potential pairings: http://www.worldofballpythons.com/wizard/

I have spiders and axanthics in my own collection. No lesser or het red yet, though I love both. My axanthic girl is VPI line and she's a beauty. I'm not a big fan of the color yellow, so I'm really excited about my future plans for her.