Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If you had 20,000 to spend on ball pythons, what would you buy?

Josh

Simple recessive! Genetic stripe male, het. genetic stripe female and a couple cool female morphs to cross him with. Clowns, pieds, caramel albino, etc would also be good to do the same thing with. Co-doms are great also, but usually don't hold their value as long because they are so easily reproduced. You will always be able to trade simple recesive snakes you produce for co-doms. This is just my opinion and I'm sure not every one will agree. Here is a pic of my Ian G. line Genetic stripe male breeding a Sharp line blonde pastel 50% poss. het ghost female. Hope I could help. Jon

Hey,

That is a great response- you can buy pieds (not hets), albinos, clowns, and mix & match. They do hold their value well and are some of the best looking snakes on earth!

Do what you love, you'll love what you do!

Steve

It's not the fastest way to make your money back, but if it were me I would buy a male pied and a 4 het females, and a female Lavender albino. This is really just because I am obsessed with the lavender albino pieds RDR produced, but when you do start producing a few you will make back your whole investment on 1 snake even if it does take you quite a few years to produce them. Double recessives that look like that will never be cheap. Plus you will have a bunch of pieds to sell and I don't think pieds will drop below $2500 or so for quite a few years.
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1.2 Het Pied
1.1 Het Lavender Albino
1.1 Het Albino
0.7 Normals
1.0 66% Het lav albino
1.0 50% Het lav albino
0.0.2 1999 Hatchling Galapagos Torts

Well if you are willing to put all your eggs in one basket, get into lav albinos. They are hot. If not, other recessives. I am knee deep in resessives and have been watching the prices of my stuff vers the co-dom stuff for a few years and I am very happy. I eventually wanted to do some crosses with pastels and other co-doms, so this year I will be getting my first pastels for pennies on the dollar. If I had spent $4000 in 03' for a good pastel, the breeding potential would still be worth as much as an 05' for $1000 as far as my projects are concerned... but the two female het pieds that I got in 03' for my $4000 have proven their worth time and again... now that I have pleanty to work with, I am ready for the co-dom mixing. Thats just my thoughts, and really, there isnt a wrong answer... if you already have a bunch of big females, co-dom might be the best value for you. Long term, recessive will always win. Short term co-dom will usually win. In the very end, you spent a ton of money on snakes and will be up to your eyeballs in dirty mouse/snake cages, heating/cooling problems, feeding problems, and hopefully the feeling of acomplishment. That reminds me of my next point... spend $12k on snakes, $4k on a few snake racks, and $4k on mouse/rat racks. In the long term (even short term) a good mouse and rat breeding system will save you a ton of money. Yah, my thoughts are scattered... sorry.

Ben

If I had $20,000 to spend on snakes, I'd invest my money for a few years, put it with other money, and get a bigger house so that I'd have room for more snakes.

If I were you, my first $60 would go towards the NERD book. While I've not read the book and have heard good and bad about it, reading the words of someone who has successfully done what you intend to do is always a good start. I was surfing the Pro Exotics website the other day, and they mentioned a couple of other snake and reptile books that seemed very worthwhile. One was about parasites, and I think you'd be wise to read that one to protect the rest of your investment. They also mentioned another "classic" text on ball pythons, and I'd add that one to my collection.

My second investment would go towards gasoline and motel rooms to visit some folks who are breeding. The biggest commercial breeders may not let you into their snake rooms, but you can probably find some people who are willing to let you see their setup. I still wish I could trade visits with some experienced keepers in my area.

I also agree with crazydart that a big piece of that investment should go towards the equipment that you will use to keep these animals. I'd want to keep a big piece of it in reserve for vet bills or other emergency needs.

For the snakes themselves, I'd look at mohaves and pieds. I think both of those are neat-looking animals.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

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