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thinking about breeding

T

The Newguy

New member
Ive been kicking around the idea of picking up a female and trying my hand at breeding. Is there anything major i should take into consideration?
 
The possibility of egg binding is something to keep in mind. Surgery to correct it is rather expensive. Otherwise it's fairly straight forward, and there are plenty of decent guides online. Check out the stickies in this forum and also the ones in snickersnakes' (Nanci LeVake's) personal forum I believe. Any specific questions we can try to answer?

Also worth mentioning: know your morphs. The last thing the herp world needs is more normals and common single-gene morphs with unknown hets. Aim higher. This is my second year breeding and I could potentially produce 3+ world first combos this year. Start here: www.cornguide.com/geneticspages.php?page=1
 
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There are several considerations to keep in mind. First you need to find a suitable female, preferably at least 3 years old and in great condition. A proven breeder is a plus. You need to prepare a nest box for egg laying if the breeding efforts were successful. You need to decide how you intend to incubate the eggs, and prepare a container for them. If you are lucky and have eggs that hatch without issue, you need to be prepared with some containers to house them, and appropriate sized pinkies to feed them. Then you will need to have the female on a higher nutrition system in case she double clutches. After all that you will have to decide how to sell any hatchlings you don't want to retain.
 
Sounds like I have a lot more to learn and think about before I give it a shot... Thanks for the insight... I'm going to the Columbus show this weekend hoping to pick up a nice looking female... As far as knowing the morphs and genetics I've had my male for six years now and never got any insight as to what he is. I'm hoping to find a Miami or a blizzard maybe... What should I ask about for the genetics so I don't end up with normals
 
I wouldn't hope for much locally. The Columbus show is typically disappointing for me. There are occasionally some decent hatchlings, but I've been thus far unimpressed by the vendors. Even the python breeders lack imagination. Ohio sucks!

Just don't go crazy like I did and import your first female from overseas. I mean, I don't regret it, but there are cheaper routes. Looking at your old posts, I believe you have an amel. What morphs do you like? Favorite colors? Maybe I can help you find a good project to get you started.
 
Yes hes an amel and about seven years old but thats all ik about him. My favorite morph is a Miami but i also like blizzards and stripes real well.
 
Play around on http://corncalc.com/ and http://corncalc.com/combos.jsp

Basicly you will only produce Amels or normal Het Amels with possibly other het's unless your Amel has unknown hets.
The overall market place isn't looking for for them except possibly for snake food. I see way too many first time producers at shows that can't even give their hatchlings away.
The cost of feeding and caring for them will quickly outpace their value.

Glad you are questioning before you breed :)

FYI, A Miami is a local normal. It won't show on the calc trade names.
 
Blizzard, blizzard stripe, and whiteout are pretty popular and oddly hard to find sometimes. This is especially true of adults. They tend to get snapped up very quickly. Starting with a simple amel is not ideal, but at least it is a component of blizzard morphs. You could start a nice blizzard project by first pairing your amel male to a striped charcoal or pewter female (esp if she is het amel), and then pairing the resulting hets together (or back to the mother if she is het amel) for a chance of producing the desired morphs. This will take a minimum of 2-3 years starting with an adult female next season, assuming everything goes according to plan (see the Murphy's Law sticky in this forum).

Well-contrasted Miamis are also popular, but you should really start with a group of snakes with strongly-contrasted backgrounds unless you want to take a few decades producing your own line. You could potentially try candycanes, but again, it's going to take several generations to breed the background color back out once you add it.

Not knowing your amel's hets, another option is to throw as many genes at it as possible with several females of various morphs. Unfortunately, unless he came from a breeder known for multi-gene projects, chances are high you might only find hets for very common mutations such as anery and hypo.
 
Being new to this im not trying to make anything crazy i just want to try it to see how it goes and if I enjoy doing it then make a plan to try for something specific. Im more so looking to get another snake i like the looks of and see what happens. But thank you for the advice and if and or when I really get into it Id be happy to learn what you know
 
The Newguy said:
Being new to this im not trying to make anything crazy i just want to try it to see how it goes
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Honestly this is makes me a little sad. :shrugs: Don't just breed any old morph for the experience of it. Being new is no excuse not to at least try to produce something worthwhile. I've never owned an aquarium or houseplant in my life and here I have spent a good portion of my day making plans and sketches for a 75 gallon aquascaped paludarium based heavily on the works of a master aquarist. Aim higher.
 
I agree with Dragonling here, if you're going to do it go big, my first corn clutches are going to be multi gene animals. I've got a coral snow going to a tessera het for coral snow and am hoping to produce one in tessera, plus tessera doesn't seem very common here locally. Then I have a lavender motley het hypo I'm breeding to that same male, not as good of a pairing honestly, but the goal is lavender motley tesseras and things I can breed into the coral snow line to make some amazing snakes in the next couple seasons. But yeah like Dragon said, go big if you're going to do it.
 
I don't think anybody should be breeding anything unless they got a concrete exit plan with the hatchlings whether it's a normal or a 4 gene morph.
The life and welfare of the hatchling should always be the first priority of the breeder.
Most wildtype and 1 gene snake caregivers on here put the same value on their snakes as do Palmetto owners. Possibly even more since most will tell you their family pet is priceless to them.
At New England expo's still the #1 sellers are normal or 1 gene snakes.
 
I have solid homes for at least ten snakes plus a couple for myself... I don't have the money to buy a crazy expensive snake just because it has good genes i want snakes that I like the look of, snakes that will make me happy to have in my house I'm not looking to get rich selling babies... I enjoy teaching kids about animals and adults to I want to make things available to family and friends, I'm a long way away from breeding on the level as most ppl here honestly would probably only do it once.
 
The forum is a place where you can ask a question and seek advice. Now you know what breeding your male will entail and you can make the final decision. I personally wouldn't want to produce normals, or a better term is classic, but I have seen some really nice classics. Last year I raised some morphs that I was proud to sell, and had only two classics which sold before the others did. Go figure?
 
This forum has always answered my questions well and everyone is always friendly. I was told that if I get a charcoal that I have the possibility to get blizzards which is a morph I would really like to have. A charcoal fits into to the darker colors that I would like to have and with the possibility of a blizzard seems like a good idea to me. And as I said ik multiple ppl that would like a snake but just need a little push to actually get one and I would be happy to be that little push. So thank you to everyone that helped answer my question
 
There are certainly morphs to suit everyone. My son liked the dark colors and introduced charcoal into his breeding colony. He had several really dark corns which he gave me. I am just the opposite, loving brighter colors. LOL. Your next challenge will be to find a breeding age charcoal.
 
The Newguy said:
I was told that if I get a charcoal that I have the possibility to get blizzards which is a morph I would really like to have
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Yes, in 3+ years. Amel and charcoal are both recessive mutations. Pairing an amel to a charcoal will yield 100% normals heterozygous for amel and charcoal. Pairing those offspring to each other will give you a 1 in 16 chance per egg to hatch a blizzard. You might get one or two in the second generation.
 
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