Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I have a 100pc het male albino and a norm femal. I wantd to know how can I get started with projects without spending BIG $$$$$. I will be going to NY show this sunday and will be looking for something. I would love to here how some of you that started small scale got going. I also wanted to know how many of you feel its not even worth dealing with poss like 50pc. I hear that I can start with the 2 I have but that it would maybe take more than 5yrs whooo long time.

There are only 3 honest ways I know of.

1) find a fool who doens't know what he has, and is willing to sell you a morph for far less than it is worth.

2) Wait for the supply of the morph you want to increase to the point where the price come down.

3) Take the needed years to do what you proposed in your post.

There are very few free lunches in life, and "finding a fool to give his lunch away" is very unlikely.

Rodney

Well, I know a guy here in Raleigh that started out about 15 years ago with just one pair of 100% het for albinos and 2 normal females. He bred the hets, and bred the male 100% het to his 2 normals. From the het x normal breeding he sold all the males and kept all the females. The het x het breeding produced a female albino ball which he sold to help fund his project. The next year, the het x het breeding produced a male albino and a female. he sold the female again and kept the male. About 2 years later, he proved out 4 (out of 7) 50% poss het females to cary the gene. By that time (5 years after starting) he was producing a good amount of 100% hets and albinos. He sold off several of his het breeders and kept one trio of het breeders and raised up one trio of albino breeders. So far, he's made enough to pump 20k into a pied project, and purchase a Fire Ball to start a Leucy project.

It takes a little while longer to start with hets, but that's what I'm doing. I've got a male pastel on the way, two normal females for him, and a pair of het albinos. Hopefully within 3 or 4 years, I'll be able to get either a pied project going or a spider ball project so I can make bumblebees and spider albinos...

I guess it all depends on what you're going for. If you want to breed them for the enjoyment and to make enough money to pay for snake food and maybe a new morph or two now and then, then hets will do that for you in the long run (that's what my goal is...). But, on the other hand, if you're looking at it as a business venture, then buying visual morphs is the best way to go. And honestly, right now, I'd be buying up either visual clowns or het clowns. Clowns haven't gotten the attention they deserve yet, but I think when they start being combined with some of the other morphs out there (pastel, albiono, axanthic, pied, etc...) they will become much more sought after.

But, that's my one and a half cents worth. Take it for what it's worth.

Now I must don my flame resistant clothing and prepare for the firestorm that seems to follow most posts on this board. Please, be gentle.

Dave.

I would buy albino female hets if I were you. I would have started with 3 or 4 albino female hets and would probably buy an albino male before the females got to a good breeding weight. But the het to het thing takes a long time, but its the cheaper way to go. The 50 percent het chance is a gamble, I personally would rather buy a sure thing. But thats just me.

If you know people selling 100% het. females then you are more lucky than I am. If you can buy them then I would say do that.