Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am trying to figure out the least expensive way to produce morphs. I thought the best way was to purchase hets but after I figured out I the cost of purchasing several hets I realized that the best route would be to purchase a number of normal females 1.1 100% het of a particular morph like albino and start my project this would seem like the least expensive route , or I could purchase 1.0 morph and a number of females and breed him to all of the females that I could , what do you all think?

There are a dozen different "ways" to go about producing recessive offspring. None are without there risks or benefits.

A good rule to follow is: the "cheaper" the route taken the longer it will take you to achieve your goal.

We'll use albinos as an example but this holds true for any recessive morph.

The absolute cheapest way to hatch your own albino is to purchase a pair of 50% possible hets. The risk is that you may not have het. albinos. The benefit is that if you do, you will produce albinos fairly cheaply. Aside from purchasing an unproven morph, this is gambling at it's finest in the ball python world.

I'm not quite sure if you are looking for the cheapest path or the cheapest and QUICKEST path to producing whichever morph you are looking for.

Pairs of hets. are relatively inexpensive and are generally easy to find if you are looking for a morph such as albinos or hypos... even axanthics have taken quite a dive in price. Pairs of het. piebalds, genetic stripes, caramel albinos, and clowns are sometimes harder to come across and usually cost more. If you are looking to produce one of these morphs "cheaply" you might be better off purchasing a 100% het. male and searching around for a few 50% het females. It'll be a long road... but at least any of the offspring you produce will be 50% hets as well.

If the price of any of these is out of your reach and you are looking for a "sure thing" I would suggest purchasing a 100% het female or two and raise them up. Give them two to three years to mature and in the meantime save up for a homozygous male. That way when you can afford the male the females will almost be ready to breed. Of course, if your only goal is HAVING a recessive morph and not actually PRODUCING one this route is redundant.

Shop around, see what you can afford. Females will almost always be more expensive than males (except co-dom morphs with no apparent "super" form). Start with the females and give them time. Otherwise, search for a 100% het. pair you can afford AND like... and like always purchase from someone you trust.

Brandon pretty much summed it up. Of course, it all depends on what morph and how much you have to spend. Personally, I would get a couple of 100% Het females ASAP, let they have a year of good feeding and then start shopping around for a Homozygous male. If you cannot find a nice Homozygous male that you really like, and if you are small time, QUALITY really counts, buy a Pastel Het whatever your female Hets are. My clown project is done that way. I aquired two 100% Het females, and then got a Pastel Het Clown male in a breeding loan.

Dave

I feel like we should add here too, if you are looking for the "fastest" way to produce morphs, then co-dom traits are the way to go. They won't take as much time to produce something visible. It also depends on what YOU like. If you don't care for pastels, but clowns get your heart racing, then you have to go for what you love. With all of the work and time you will put into any pet (or investment) you have to love the thing itself or it just won't last.
If you are just looking to make morphs and money, I suggest you take some time to peruse the threads here and see what others have to say about it. It's just not that easy.
Susan D.

I post here all the time as many of you already know, I have a vision rack cb-70 ball and I love it , and now I even have my own snake room and office , I have a new home and a soon to be new wife so as you all can see I have alot on my plate as far as economics, this is a hooby/buisness and I plan on building it up slowly with good quality balls. I love this hobby but I also have many more responsibilities that comes first like my soon to be wife and are new home , I am making great progress , I already am in the works on purchasing my first 0.1 100% het for albino to add to my vision rack from a very well known breeder that post on this site,I want say their names due to fact I take business very seriously, I plan on purchasing normal females and 100 het females and going this route , I already have three normal females in my vision rack and I plan on purchasing more.Thank you all for your positive comments.

You have to figure out what your budget is? How many snakes you want to have aroud. If you buy 100 percent males and normal females, you can quickly -over a few years(is this an Oxymoron?) generate alot of snakes that you have to maintain then breed out to prove?

You can get a Pastel for 200 bucks if you just want to have a morph in your house?

Really, you have to have a game plan that is right for your lifestyle and budget.

The answer really is entirely dependent on what your goals and expectations are as well as how much money, time and effort you want to put into it.
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Tosha
JET Pythons