Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am thinking about purchasing a male het for hypo. What is your guys' opinions on hets and is it a good idea? Is it worth it to wait a couple years to produce a hypo, or should I just invest it in something else? Thanks everyone!

Melody

go for all homo animals. But if you are like most, you cannot afford homo animals. Hets are a less expensive (although, tricky) way to get the animals you want - eventually. For example, a pied pair might cost you 12K, but a het pair of pieds might cost 2K.
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Jay A. Martin

lol...I like that "eventually" part. Thats the only drawback, you gotta wait. I was thinking of just getting a het male or two, breeding them to a normal female, keeping all the female babies, breeding them back to the father, see what happens that way, but I would need to wait like 3-4 years for that. I'm so impatient though! LOL...I just put all my money into a male pastel, I go to school full time, so it will take me another couple months to get enough saved up for another homo. I want to get a decent collection started (I have 2.4 right now, but all females are small I have one around 800 grams, the rest are in the 200-300 gram range, so they wont be breeding size for a little while. I am still looking to buy a 1500 gram female for the pastel to breed with next season. Thanks everyone!!

Melody

You already have the best het in the business. The Pastel - het for Super Pastel, also a visual het. Its easy to produce more and sell what you want and keep the others. You have stated you dont have an over abundance of extra adult females so buying another male is pointing yourself in a bad situation. Any affordable het male to a normal adult female will produce less money than your Pastel to the same normal adult female. Most affordable visual males also produces less money than your Pastel to normals. 2 pairs of Het Albinos, 2 pairs of het Ghost, 2 pairs of het Axanthics, 2 pairs of het Pieds sell for about the same or less than the same 1 pair of Pastels that you would produce from the normal female breeding. Like these guys have told you, you would and should keep any 50% het females and also any 100% het female if you did buy a 100% het or visual male of any kind. So selling the remaining 50% or 100% het males would be very hard and not give you a good return. Produce your Pastels and see how easy it is to sell your 100% het Super Pastels, males or females. Then buy what you want. Best in whatever you decide for yourself.

GOD Bless
Andre
ASFReptiles

Thanks Andre! I needed that! I am just juggling different possibilities right now. I do need a couple big females, but even with those, I wont be able to breed them until next year, unless I can find one thats been cooled and ready to breed. But again, my pastel is only 300 grams, so he wont be ready to breed for a couple months. So here's another question...what is a fair price for a, say, 1500 gram normal female? Thanks again everyone!

Melody

...1500 gram either LTC or CB, one that I do not have to worry about it eating. I am not messing with large WC animals, did that once, never again.

Melody

as soon as some begin to drop a few people will sell them between $200-400. Far less than the usual $400-600 that you see at the beginning of breeding season.

GOD Bless
Andre

watch KS for them and have money ready to make quick purchase

I have seen normal females at 1500 go for as high as $400 and 2000 gram and up females go for $600. My advice is to check your local pet stores regularly you would be suprised what you find. I have gotten two CB 1500 grams females for only 80 each. Best of luck

Yeah, I just found out a friend on mine sold his big female (like 5' long) for $30. I was so mad when I found out! I have been checking the paper, pet stores and different advertising websites, and cant find anything less than $300 Thanks again everyone

If you haven't learned already you should learn how to probe a snake. There are plenty of people who sell their snakes that don't know whether its male or female or think that they have a male because its bigger than their friends snake. Look through your classifeds respond to the ads, ask them if you can bring your probes to verify the sex. I ended up with a pair of females from someone who wanted to get rid of a pair that would not breed this way.
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Tosha

8.10.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and currently un-named)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
7.9.5 Fish (1,2,3,4...)
0.0.1 Frog rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.2 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer

Nice find Tosha! I do need to learn how to probe. Is there a good website/page that would give me a good idea on how its done? Or where I can by a decent probing kit? I have seen it done about 100 times, but never tried it.

Melody

Personally, I have several female 100% hets, when they become of breeding size, then I'll purchase either the het male or a homo male depending on what my budget can afford. IMO buying the male before the female is a bit of a waste, as it will be a good 3 years before you could breed him to a possible het daughter unless you think you can afford a breedable size het or homo female for him in the next year.
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Tosha

8.10.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and currently un-named)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
7.9.5 Fish (1,2,3,4...)
0.0.1 Frog rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.2 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer

This is what I would do, Buy a 100% het. hypo male and a 100% het. high-contrast albino and a couple adult normal females, then breed the het. hypo male and the het. high-contrast albino male to the normal females, sell off all the babies and buy a Homo Hypo and a Homo High-Contrast Albino and a couple 100% het. females. Thanks Scott Glover

50% hets that are very hard to sell for much more than normal prices. You would be best to keep the females and breed them back.
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Jay A. Martin

I agree with j martin you would be much better off holding the females back. I also agree with him about selling the 50% hets they wont sell for much more than a normal. I never buy poss. hets when there is an option to buy 100% het. Sure they are a little more but there worth it.

I think I may just invest in a couple hets, and take things from there. What would be some good ones to start with? Are the hypos worth much? I am not really in it for the money as much as I am to have a good looking snake. I think it would be kind of cool to practically make my own morph (not a new one, but to get a morph from 'normal' animals). I am not really into albinos, pieds are ok. What makes mojaves? Those are my faves, my dream is to own a mojave one day!

Melody

a blue eyed lucy produced from mojave to mojave should produce all mojaves from breeding to normal females.

i have found that the best ' bang for your buck ' is to purchase 3 100% het - for whatever you want - pieds,albino,clowns,hypo - grow them for a year or so then buy the visual male morph and they should hit breeding size at the ame time. IMO.
i would stick with your pastes also - which is also a good idea since about 50% of the morphs out there use pastels as crosses.
there are several ways you can go, jsut look at them all and pick the one you love the most. mojaves are around 15k right now. i know you dont like the albinos but picking up 3-6 100% hets, buying a male in a year, breed, sell babies and you should have enough to buy your ' prize ' - the mojave !