Reptile & Amphibian Forums

okay, a question from the department of redundancy department..

I am going to breed some morphs, and I am looking for some suggestions on what to breed. I have a very limited budget, and had origionally planned on going with albinos, but lately I have been thinking of going with something a little more creative. I know this question has been asked before, but I just want to get the best bang for my buck, and have grown to trust the opinions of many of the posters on here.

Any suggestions? (I am really just looking at getting two snakes, and I'd like to see something with a little "wow" factor after first breeding)

I have settled on one of two breeders....either markusjayne or Corey Woods, (or maybe both?) I am in canada, so my resources are limited, but I know these breeders have awesome reputations!

I know the common response is, "go with what you like" but I just want some opinions.

Thanks for your ideas!
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James.....
"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought the beast back."

I would suggest getting a 2007 morph male of your choice, then a normal 2006 female, and a 2007 morph female of your choice.

Reason being you can typically breed the male after his first year and without a female around that is a year older (and 1500 grams) you miss out on some "practice" breeding.

Then theoretically your next year, after figuring things out, you get to breed your male to both a normal and a morph.

Say you like killer bees.

NOW:
Buy a pastel male and a spider female and of course your normal 2006 female.

Winter 2008:
Next year break in your male and breed him to the normal female, hopefully making some pastel females for you to hold back and some pastel males for you to sell off for some cash. (as well as some normals to trade for food, etc.)

Winter 2009:
The following year breed the pastel male to both your normal female and your spider female. Again get pastels as well as spiders and hopefully bumblebees. Hopefully get a male bee and maybe a female, hold both back.

Winter 2010:
Breed last years stuff again, more bumblebees, pastels, spiders.

Winter 2011:
Your pastel females from 2008 should be breedable as well as your bumble male.....say hello to killer bees

While this seems like a long way off it really is a quick way to get into things. Alot of starting breeders don't realize how hard it is to sell non-visual morphs.....near impossible. So work with something that will sell and something you can hopefully make easily.

My 2 cents.

Good luck!
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John Dague
Midwest Reptiles
www.mwreptiles.com

good ideas...plus, I have the normals covered! lol. Right now my male and female breeders are locked up, plus, next year my other male and female will both be ready, so....going with a spider and a pastel MAY get me a bumble in a couple years? Do you find it makes a difference which is the male and which is the female?
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James.....
"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought the beast back."

I would go with a pastel male simply because you'll want more pastel females than spider females. Pastels make great crosses into just about anything where as spiders are situationally crossable IMO.....and it improves your chances of getting that super pastel or killerbee the more female pastels you have.

If you are into the axanthic killer bee at all find a trusted breeder with some pos het axanthic spiders and pos het axanthic pastels....the price shouldn't be much more and you never know you might hit it and get axanthics at some point.

good luck!
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John Dague
Midwest Reptiles
www.mwreptiles.com

Like the previous poster said - go with visuals! Honestly, only serious breeders like hets. The average joe doesn't care about hets and won't even care about something like a yellowbelly - I just saw this in person a couple weeks ago. Someone was trying to sell yellowbellies locally for less than market price, and there were NO takers just because they were "only" hets, and "look just like a normal snake". Some people don't know what they're missing!

The bumblebee project is a good one to get into. I'd get a Pastel male, Spider female, because...Spiders make everything look like spiders. Pastels make everything they're bred to crisper, brighter, in other words, better! So, a spider male will make everything he's bred to look like a spider...but a pastel male will make everything he's bred to look better. So, it pays more to have a pastel male to improve everything (and make it worth more), and a spider female to produce bees and other good looking spider variations.
I love spiders, but they do start to get monotonous after a while unless you do something crazy.

Good luck! Post pictures of whatever you end up getting!

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

There are a lot of neat co-dom projects that can be had for cheap now days - you could go the bumblebee route with pastels and spiders or lemon blast/killer blast with pins and pastels - I'm really liking what's coming out of the cinny pastel pairings. Mojaves and Lessers are also reasonably priced now and carry some nice projects as well.
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Tosha
JET Pythons

hmmm...if I could scrape together enough $$ maybe a male pastel, female spider, and female pin might be the way to go. Then I could breed the pastel to both in a few years, and get two relatively inexpensive projects on the go, and in the meantime, make some pastels with the male and my two normal females.
great ideas guys...thanks for your input!
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James.....
"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought the beast back."