What to breed?

[kaniff]

Hello,
Looking for some input on what people think are some good boa morphs to breed? I was thinking the usual albino or hypo but people jumped all over me saying how over saturated the market is for these morphs and to not even bother...anyone care to share their opinion?
Thanks

[beardeds4life]

I agree you will not sell them because there will always be people giving them away for free/very very cheap

[theapexgerman]

what type's of snake's do you got?

[beardeds4life]

Yes, that might help people.

[stephanbakir]

Keep in mind that even when people are throwing away a mutation, like albino boas, they can combine with other morphs to create incredible animals. That means that QUALITY specimens of base morphs still have value... its one of those "you get what you pay for" situations. I'm buying a snake next year for 2700$ aprox, I can get that exact same morph from a backyard breeder for 1800$, quality almost always sells.

[beardeds4life]

true true but most people do not see quality the just get the cheapest they can find but you are loaded arent you?

[red ink]

I hear pearls seem to be a good boa morph...

[beardeds4life]

yes but if he is buying babies by the time they are adults they will be like albinos are now

[red ink]

yes but if he is buying babies by the time they are adults they will be like albinos are now

Well that's the price you pay I suppose when your breeding for "price" rather than....

[stephanbakir]

true true but most people do not see quality the just get the cheapest they can find but you are loaded arent you?

I have less then 100$ in the bank right now, and no income for the last few weeks... I know what my dreams are and how to make them a reality. I'll do anything it takes to reach them.

2700$ might sound like a big number but if you spread it out, its easy to save up, even when everything looks against you.

The difference between breeder 1 who makes 8 crappy looking albinos and sells them for X$ overnight and breeder 2 who makes 8 fantastic babies whose pictures alone will inspire people, and sells them for 1.5X$ over a few months, is a person who takes pride in what he does, waits for the right animal and buys it specifically for a project because HE wants to see the outcome. Money alone rarely makes breeding worthwhile, and if you don't enjoy it I would strongly advise you to find a different profession.

That 2700$ animal I'm buying has a single recessive mutation, is het for another and carries 2 codominant genes, recessive genes generally drop in prices slower the codominant genes.
I know that the genes my animal carries will be worth around 700-800$ by the time 3 years pass and its breeding age (its a female, males take 12-14 months to reach sexual maturity) My goal is not to make money, although the least I expect is to break even. My goal is to create an animal I've been dreaming about for years, that I know how to create and just need to put the effort in to make that dream a reality.

Breeding reptiles makes you money once a year (per breeding female, assuming a miracle happens and all of your females breed in one season) and over the rest of the year, you must pay food bills, heating and potential vet visits, it takes dedication and drive to actually make it.

[stephanbakir]

Well that's the price you pay I suppose when your breeding for a specific trait, and quality rather than....

Red Ink, I hope you don't mind but I reworded your quote.

[beardeds4life]

I have less then 100$ in the bank right now, and no income for the last few weeks... I know what my dreams are and how to make them a reality. I'll do anything it takes to reach them.

2700$ might sound like a big number but if you spread it out, its easy to save up, even when everything looks against you.

The difference between breeder 1 who makes 8 crappy looking albinos and sells them for X$ overnight and breeder 2 who makes 8 fantastic babies whose pictures alone will inspire people, and sells them for 1.5X$ over a few months, is a person who takes pride in what he does, waits for the right animal and buys it specifically for a project because HE wants to see the outcome. Money alone rarely makes breeding worthwhile, and if you don't enjoy it I would strongly advise you to find a different profession.

That 2700$ animal I'm buying has a single recessive mutation, is het for another and carries 2 codominant genes, recessive genes generally drop in prices slower the codominant genes.
I know that the genes my animal carries will be worth around 700-800$ by the time 3 years pass and its breeding age (its a female, males take 12-14 months to reach sexual maturity) My goal is not to make money, although the least I expect is to break even. My goal is to create an animal I've been dreaming about for years, that I know how to create and just need to put the effort in to make that dream a reality.

Breeding reptiles makes you money once a year (per breeding female, assuming a miracle happens and all of your females breed in one season) and over the rest of the year, you must pay food bills, heating and potential vet visits, it takes dedication and drive to actually make it.

good for you

[stephanbakir]

good for you
You misunderstood the point of my statement, asking people what to breed will only get you so far, following their advice will only get you so far...
Find what YOU want to breed, taking advice is great but make sure to follow YOUR dreams before those of others or you will get discouraged...

[stephanbakir]

Incidentally, its a good thing to know that Codom genes, and dom genes GENERALLY drop in value much faster then recessive genes because of how easy they are to replicate and "chain" into other genes.

[red ink]

Red Ink, I hope you don't mind but I reworded your quote.

No worries mate :D

Peeps should breed what they like or what they would like to potentially create and not breed for the potential profits...

Even if they are bog standard animals with no market worth no reason why people shouldn't breed them. You can always just give them away for free.

I've done this twice now just to supply newbs with free herps (well some of them gave me grog in exchange) or friends that just wanted pets for neices, nephews, sons, daughters, donations to the local herp society for auctions etc etc...

[KORBIN5895]

Breed a princess diamond boa. It will be years before the market is flooded. As far as albinos go there maybe a lot out there but like it was mentioned before they breed in to many things. Albinos will always be classic. I honestly recommend starting with basic boas and morphs unless you have more money than brains. I have been looking at several different snakes and most people are selling very nice morphs for lesa than they paid three years ago cause it doesn't fit into their breeding plans anymore. Care to guess why?

[stephanbakir]

Care to guess why? because market prices fall? Yeh they generally do and the breeders know that before buying the animal. If they plan for right now and bought babies they are idiots, even males take 10-14 months to reach breeding age.

[kaniff]

thanks for the advice everyone, to answer theapexgerman I dont have any snakes right now. Im waiting till the next reptile expo to purchase them and wanted some advice as to the what morphs I should get...and just before everyone rips on me about "not having any snakes and wanting to breed them before I even know what im doing" I just want to add that I used to own and breed many different types of reptiles when I was younger but it somehow phased out of my life. My son asked me for a snake for his birthday and it seemed to spark the interest back up so I decided to get back into the hobby. I dont necessarily want to make a profit but I would like to breed quality animals that other people are interested in that and would sell/trade relatively easy. I still like the albino look so Im thinking of maybe doing the snow morph.

[KORBIN5895]

Snows are nice! I hope to breed sunglows for my wife.