Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I would love to breed corns in the future.

I would like to hear some opinions about what the breeder animals should be.

Do you find it more beneficial to breed triple hets so you get a variety of babies instead of breeding many different morphs?

For example, you could have only 1.1 normals het for bloodred, anery, and hypo and when bred together would yield normals, anerys, hypos, ghosts, bloodreds, hypo bloodreds, anery bloodreds, and ghost bloodreds. Whereas to produce the same kinds of babies from parents of the same morph you would have to have 16 different animals.

Granted you would get MANY more babies using the second option, but do you think that hets are the way to go in order to have many different types of offspring without having to have that many adults?

I think that hets would be the way to go, but I may not be thinking about some pitfall of using this strategy that you might know of.
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alstiver@hotmail.com

Currently own:
1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
0.0.3 Goldfish (Kabuki, Isamu, and Yuki)
1.0 '99 American Eskimo x ? mutt (Rusty)

Soon to be added:
1.0 '03 or '04 Type II Anery Nicaraguan boa
0.1 '03 or '04 Hypo Nicaraguan boa

UNless you are able to produce above-standard corns, don't do it.
Every expo is full of little corns of all varieties, and everyone is trying to get rid of them.
Don't get me wrong, corns are fantastic and easy to breed and raise, but its almost a waste of time.
If I really wanted to get into corn breeding, I'd choose my flat-out favorites and specialize in them exclusively, and strive for the best specimens of that morph in the business.
Hope this helps.
-Jack
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Well, I don't see any flaws in the idea, but . . .
I agree with Jack.

I long ago decided that it's impossible to compete with the 'big breeders' who are able to spend astronomical sums of money on their breeder stock to guarantee that they have the best looking animals out there. I decided to focus on a few varieties that I find simply wonderful to work with.

Also, I know this makes me a throwback or something, but the idea of a 'triple het' or 'double het' doesn't do much for me. It's all too unpredictable, there are no guarantees, and lots of people willing to rip you off.

I just keep what I love to look at and hold, and breed what I love to look at and hold. So long as you're doing the same, I hardly see how you could go wrong. Just be sure you are really buying what you think you're buying.

--Naamah

I agree. I like breeding dbl, triple, and even quadrupal hets together, but I usually do this to get only one specific morph (ie a hypo lavender bloodred motley). When you do this though you get alot of bi-products (ie hets and possible hets for this and that). These are hard to sell and usually can't even make your money spent in food back. So I agree pick a couple of morphs you like and work on producing the best you can.

No offense we don't need another breeder who is producing substandard animals and selling them for 1/2 price (not that you would). This hurts the breeders who sell genetically and physically rich animals. How can I get $200-$250 for a butter motley (a 4 year project by the way) when the guy next to me is selling his for $125-150 and they look exacly the same as hatchling. I usually can't, but I do get the repeat customers because in adulthood mine look excellent and the cut rate guys don't.

Well anyway, I'm done ranting (no offense meant to anyone). You will never be able to compete with the breeder who have been doing this for 3 decades plus so find you favorite morphs and produce the best possible and if you sell them charge what they are worth.

tom

xtremeherps@yahoo.com

I'm just wondering what the chance is to eventually(7-8 years more, at least) breed a few 'batches' up here, north of the border? Quite a few up here are probably rather shifty about getting snakes from the US, customs and all. There's also a fairly nearby pet shop that specializes in reptiles. They don't seem to have a lot of different morphs. They have a few normals, an okatee, and I believe they had a blizzard once. If I was able to eventually get a few good specimens of a morph, what's the chance of breeding for profit up here?

If anything, this will be a *long* time away. I'm still in high school, and I still have to do the whole Uni thing. I'm already thinking about breeding, and I've had him for one week. It's addictive, it is. *sigh*