Breeding advice for my family

[Zeus1313]

Hi everyone I am new to this forum.

I will be starting to breed at a very small scale as a hobby to do with my daughters. I’m pretty well versed in the matter from earlier in my life. ( pre-children) but I do have a few questions. An overview of my goals might help for better answers. As stated before I’d like to say somewhat small as this is a hobby for my family. With that nearly all of the morphs I am drawn to the most seem to be the most expensive. I also would like to produce high quality snakes people actively want opposed to just breeding for fun. So basically I want to start out somewhere not too costly but still be able to be up to date ish with some of the newer morphs so by the time We are able to produce them we aren’t years and $$$s begins everyone else. So my questions.

strong options to breed my super pastel male to?

possible other pairs to breed up in the mean time or as well?

I know now it’s important to breed the morphs you love so you stay in the hobby and care for your snakes properly but honestly I love so many and myself and my girls love snakes in general so much I just want to be able to produce snakes people desire and to help keep some coats of the hobby down.

Last question. Top ten males and top ten females in order of importance to a breeding opporation?

i appreciate any responses and anyone who spent time reading my long post.

[Ladybugzcrunch]

Were me, I would go with morphs that are likely to be middle of the road in value long term. Those that have traditionally held their popularity in the pet market.

Pied, clown, and albino seem to want to stick around with combo critters reaching high numbers. I would go with these recessive as a base with some popular dominant or co- dominant morphs mixed in. Already being at a disadvantage here with a super pastel male though. I would pick up animals such as albino Het pied, clown Het albino, pied Het clown, black pastel albino, Mojave pied, enchi clown, etc.; whatever turns your head with these recessive morphs mixed in. Try to buy as many visuals and as few hets as you can afford and plan your breedings to always have a shot at visuals and 100% hets. I would not by just a Het with no other genes and anything that was a Het would need to be 100% and a visual of the another recessive. All hets should come from a reputable source.

Going with morphs that are new and expensive now may turn into not so valuable animals in a few years once you are ready to start pairing. Go with reliable stuff that has proven to stick around.

Plan on 1 male to service every 3 females. This will give the male an opportunity to service all three females and have a week off each month during breeding season.

Good luck.

[cchardwick]

For starters I was curious how old your daughters are? If you start on a 10 year recessive project your kids may be out of the house by the time you produce what you are shooting for LOL. Personally I'd pick up some mature females, maybe a couple adults that are close to breeding size. Maybe a couple Normal females or single gene females to start, here's an example:

https://www.morphmarket.com/us/c/rep...pythons/124395

Then I'd search Morphmarket for a multi gene male, something with a lot of cool dominant / codom morphs... I ran across this eight gene snake for $700! Check it out:

Pastel Fire Lesser Enchi Spinner Calico Possible Cinnamon

https://www.morphmarket.com/us/c/rep...pythons/123763

With that male and a couple cheap females you could jump right in for less than $1,000, possibly crank out some babies in the first year or two, and get a whole rainbow of colors that I think your kids would enjoy. And you should be able to easily make your money back in the first year or two. It will also be fun trying to figure out what genes are in the babies. I'd hold back a really cool multi gene female to breed back to that super pastel male.

I wouldn't worry about the $$$ and being behind everyone else, snakes will always lose their value year after year and you'll always be behind someone else LOL. If you focus on that you'll get depressed and some even leave the hobby because of it. Just have fun and don't worry about the market (or the money). If you end up with too many baby snakes just find a pet shop or wholesaler, they will buy them all for pennies on the dollar, but at least you'll move them. Or better yet find a local breeder who sells at shows, he may use them as backup once he starts selling off his snakes and needs something to replace them with on the table at the show. You may even consider sitting behind the table at the show with your girls if he lets you, would be a neat experience for them.

You can breed for fun no problem, don't feel bad about it LOL. And there will always be a demand for pet snakes. Just take a look at the 'population clock' there are 7.4 billion people on the planet with a new person being born ever second, and all those people need pet snakes LOLOLOL.

https://www.census.gov/popclock/

As for the top ten males and females, I would give you my list but they would all be out of your price range (i.e. Sunset, Panda Pied, etc..).

[Alter-Echo]

Most of what needs to be said has already been said, but here are a few things that may match well with a super pastel...

Enchi fire.

Pastel Clown... if you breed a male offspring back to the mom later on

Vanilla yellow belly

Bumblebee

Highway

Pastel Desert ghost... again, breed a male offspring back to the mom.

Orange dream fire

Leopard