Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Which would you say is the best overall investment if you can only afford one?

1.0 Super Pastel

1.0 Mojave

Thanks,
Becky

This type of question is asked here all of the time and the best answer anyone can give you is this:

Get the one YOU LIKE THE MOST. That's it. If you can afford only one (or even a dozen) it only makes sense to chose to work with the morph you are most interested in and excited about. In the long run you are less likely to lose interest or have regrets about your decision. You are also more likely to take better care of an investment you feel strongly about. Keep this in mind why making your decision about ANY morph purchase in ANY quantity no matter the money involved.

Now, with that out of the way and assuming the possiblity that you are interested in both equally and are looking at which will give you the highest returns in the shortest period of time we can examine the CURRENT pros and cons of each decision.

I don't know how many females you have or the age of the males you are looking at so I'll make a few more assumptions.
Let's assume you have one female (the ratios are the same so this will make it easier) and that she will be ready to breed by next year. Hopefully so will whatever male you chose.

Both morphs are dominant (actually the pastel is incomplete dominant and IMO the mojave hasn't really proven itself one way or the other...might get questioned about that...just start another thread and we can discuss it there) But since they both can produce visual morphs after a single pairing their values will drop faster than those of recessive morphs.

Let's start with the Mojave:
PROS:

** Current market prices are higher for mojaves than pastels. In fact, it will be a few years (if not longer) before they see current pastel prices.

** Each egg laid by your female will have a 50% of being mojave.

** In a year, one hatchling mojave could very well net you the same money as an entire clutch of pastels. Maybe more. I'm not a fortune teller so I can only speculate and with new morphs popping up all of the time prices can fluctuate dramatically over the course of one season.

** Mojaves are still fairly new. There is a lot of work to be done before we can figure out the full potential of this morph and the various crosses that can be produced. This will help keep their prices a higher for a while.

CONS:

** No Super Mojave (IMO), yes, they were involved in a cross that resulted in leucistics hatching. But this was a cross between Lesser Platinum and Mojave. Not a true super.

** With "only" a 50% chance per egg of hatching a mojave you could end up with a clutch of all normals.

** With the higher price a mojave will command you won't have a hard time getting people interested but you may have a harder time finding a buyer with the cash to actually buy it.

SUPER PASTEL:

PROS:

** There is a Super Pastel.

** EVERY hatchling will be a pastel. Losing one or two eggs out of the clutch would still leave you with pastels. With the mojave you COULD lose the one egg that just so happened to be a mojave.

** So far pastels have been crossed with just about every other morph possible with some sometimes stunning results. This will help keep their prices up. So far no one has produced a Pastel x Pied cross but I wouldn't be surprised if that happens by next year at the latest.

** With the lower price (and most likely another price drop next year) they will be affordable to more buyers.

** Holding back one of your females (or trading with another breeder) will give you all the ingredients for producing more Super Pastels.

CONS:

** Even with a clutch of pastels you may not make as much money as with the mojave.

** You will have to wait for a female (if you get one) from the clutch to mature (another 2-4 years) before you can breed her to make more Super Pastels.

** I'm not saying the market is saturated, but pastels command a lower price for a reason...many people/breeders already have them. It may be just as hard to sell those pastel babies for the price you want simply due to supply and demand.

** ??

I'm sure there are more pros and cons of each. Everything above is simply my observation of things and there may be points that I didn't get quite right. I tried not to give my opinion just laid out the facts as I saw them. Sometimes it's easier to make a decision when everything is laid out before you. It's possible I hit on one or two points you hadn't thought of or had forgot about. This is a difficult comparision due to the genetic nature of the two and the market fluctuations. At the end of the day, I still say to go with the one you like more. It's better for you and the snakes. Period.

Good Luck and let us knwo which you decided on. (Or if you changed your mind completely.)
-----
It's actually not that I love or even like snakes. I just hate rodents.