Tips on Selective Breeding

[kc261]

I am hoping to get a good thread going with lots of advice on HOW to go about selective breeding. Lots of people, including me, say it is important.

But when it comes to selecting animals, what do you look for? Obviously it is important to look for animals that you think look nice, but sometimes what catches your eye might not be the best thing in your breeding project.

Any particular tips on what look(s) in a normal make a good match with which morphs?

How do you decide who to pair with whom? For example, if you have 2 pastels, one you like for tons of blushing, and another that you like because it has really bright yellow that contrasts with the dark areas that have almost no blushing, those might not make the best pair.

There are probably aspects of this I haven't even considered yet, so please feel free to add anything even if it doesn't directly answer one of the questions I asked.

[Royal_Rodents]

if and when i start selective breeding i would look for a three things.
1. color. Color imo is a deciding factor for me. If i am looking to buy a snake i would want one with outstanding colors that last threw out the snakes life.

2. pattern. A snake with a unique pattern can be the deciding factor between one snake to another for me.

3. structure. Make sure the snake is structurly sound no deffects ect....
all of this was based on 2 cents

[nevohraalnavnoj]

I think pattern and structure, as said above, are the two most important.

If you are looking at pastel crosses, get a nice light or golden normal female.

I have a really reduced normal female that I may throw with my spider someday just to see if the spider offspring are more reduced than the father. I don't think it's been established, however, what effect the normal parent has with the spider offspring. I think it will be interesting to see.

JonV

[Gloryhound]

Too many variables to make a black and white guide line. I like to look at the male and female and see if they have any traits that will compliment the others genetics. As an example: A genetic reduced combined with a non-genetic reduced may help the over all genetic reduced pattern.

Of course you don't want to breed anything with any Defect or should I say unwanted defect since a morph itself could in some cases and by some people be classified as a defect.

Also I like to keep an eye on inbreeding. A couple of times may be OK, but I can't see inbreeding for 3 or 4 generations without injecting new blood at some point.

[PythonChick]

I think with selective breeding, what is most important is thinking about what it is you are looking for in your breeding program. For example, I like really reduced patterned lessers with few if any alien heads. Therefore, if I were to get a lesser and a normal to breed, I would shop around until I found a lesser with few if any alien heads and good colors. As for a mate, if I were going with a normal female I would probably try and find a nice reduced patterned female with a light color. This is just an example, but I don't think it would be possible to make strict guidelines for 'X is what I look for when selectively breeding X morph.' I think you have to decide what you are looking for and go from there. I am a HUGE fan of blushing on the backs of pastels, cinnamons, any morph really. Consequently, I found a female pastel het for hypo that has a lot of blushing down her back. I am in the process of finding a mate for her now. In keeping with my love of blushing, I am searching for either a hypo male with lots of blushing or a reduced patterned spider male. Blushing is hard to come by in a spider, so I feel like a reduced patterned spider would stand a better chance of enhancing the patterning trait I am looking for. These are just some examples of my own tastes. I think this is a great thread I will be interested to hear what others say.

[darkangel]

I'm interested in trying this out this year. Jamie has a GORGEOUS normal girl that is so light and pale yellow... it's difficult to describe her without a picture. I'd like to breed her to the butter we just got to see if it has any effect on cleaning up the colors and making a better looking butter. I'm not exactly sure it will work that way, but since we plan on having more than one clutch of butters, we'll be able to test my theory. I definitely believe in selective breeding - I'm incredibly picky when buying anything and while we're still breeding lots of normals I want to be very selective in which females go w/ what morph.

[Beardedragon]

Its all about color and pattern, and the two have to work together for me. Ive found some really nice patterned spiders with ugly colors, and vise versa, that have thrown me off from buying them.

Here is my subadult lesser, 650 grams, He has kept his colors well and has not greyed out. ( his dad looked the same and his mom was pretty dark)




He is going to be bred to these girls:





They all are pretty reduced, and do not have alien heads.

Here is my Spider


Saying he breds this year he will be bred to this super high gold adult( you cant see it well in this picture, but she looks fantastic in person) NO or LITTLE spots, and she does not have a busy pattern, which in return might make a good match.




This girl is very jungleish, and will be bred to a black pastel which I think will also be a good match




Who knows who this girl will be bred to, all three will go in with her just to be a surprise. Shes not the best for any of them really, so she will just be here to play around with. Maybe a pastel?


Hope this helps!- Matt

[bait4snake]

I've been a fan of very selective breeding from the beginning, just for personal fun and creating the best line to compete with.

For example, when it was time for me to find an albino male, I found a guy who just had 6 clutches of albinos and hets hatch roughly the same time. I liked the looks of his sires, so I figured the babies would be similar.

I got in first dibs and had the pick of the litter(s) for orange/white contrast plus pattern.

Now, for outbreeding, which I still think is important even with a well bred morph like the albino, I went to a local importer/breeder and sifted through everything he had to find a female that was so orange and so black and as a bonus had a jungle-like pattern. She kept her color contrast very well, still holding onto her deep orange undertones and her black never fading, and I can't wait to produce some hets from her. While those hets are growing up, I'll be on the look out for another great looking albino male to breed with them.

I also bought some Het Albinos for this guy, but only after seeing what their parents and albino littermates looked like.

I want the highest contrast albinos on the market.

That's just my little story.

[West Coast Jungle]

Matt that spider is off the charts

[bait4snake]

Matt that spider is off the charts

Ditto