I say holdup there...
cornscorpfrog said:
I have got a female alemelanistic corn snake and am going to buy a male corn in the summer so I can put them through a bromation period in the winter because I want to breed them next year.
I have wanted to breed her with a snow or ghost corn but don't know what species the offspring will be and if I will be able to sell them to pet shops for as much as pure almelanistic corns.
I would like to know any infomation I could get on this, and get some opinions of what you think I should breed her with.
Before you go breeding it's imperative to understand just what you're doing, what you are producing and how to list them to sellers. Also understand that since you're 14 some pet stores might not be willing to buy snakes from you (the whole contract with a minor thing).
You need to understand some basic genetics to really be able to figure out breedings and what to pair snakes with.
You need to understand terms like trait, gene, locus, heterozygous and homozygous if you're going to understand what I'm about to tell you. You should look at the Genetics Tutorial at
www.serpwidgets.com and the Genetics FAQ page on this website that I created with the help of many members.
How old is the female amelanistic cornsnake? How long is she? How much does she weigh?
If you want to produce babies that will either be all amels, or at least part amels you need to find a male that is either homozygous for amel or het for amel. The list is long ranging, but essentially: Snow, Blizzard, Opal, Butter or an Amel male (Sunglow, Reverse Okeetee).
Matching up the female with a ghost will produce all normals, those snakes being het for amel, anery, and hypo. Normals sold to the pet store will not sell for as much as amels will.
Breeding with a snow will create all amels het for anery. You need to understand that pet stores do not care about what a snake is het for, but only for what the snake looks like. Amels will fetch a higher price than normals.
Plan accordingly, and make sure that the pet store is going to buy from you before you breed and have 15 or so babies with nowhere to go.