Colors and Mutations in Action -- or -- "I chose the wrong business." - Page 1

One of my other hobbies is herpetology, where the aim is quite the opposite of dogs. The goal of any reptile breeder is to produce the newest highly desirable color and/or pattern mutation, prove the trait, then sell the offspring for an insane amount of money. And people buy them! Unfortunately, I don't have enough money to break into the high end aspect of the hobby. And by the time I could afford the big sellers, they'd be worth maybe a tenth of what I paid for "em. Ah well.

This is one of the reasons I don't necessarily believe a funky colored dog is anything other than a purebred; I've seen what anomalies can happen in animals bred true.





This is a normal ball python. It's worth about $25 - $50 USD.






A collection of snakes ranging from $500 to about $3000





Piebald Ball Python:
Currently selling for $1,200 - $2,000 USD.





Killer Clown.
Currently selling for $25,000 USD!


 

I dunno Julie?.....there seams to be alot of "breeders" making a **** load of cash...breeding those "psychedelic special rich colors".....!!
More often than not...you can scroll down to an advertisement or picture of one.....amazing!
Those snakes in your pics are beautiful!...(respect them-just don't WANT one).....NEVER seen a pieball though....STRIKING!
Robin

p.s....please don't feel the need to bring any around me though! LOL!

Snakes give me the willies. 

I love snakes !!  LOL  I had Ball Pythons when I was growing up then gave them all away when I had my son. Now 12 years later my son has a baby normal pastel (she turned 1 June 6th 2010) and a 5 year old Suriname normal (he turned 5 Jan 4th 2010).
I think the Boas are more personable and love to just be around ya all the time ... ours do anyhows, my bp's were not like this. The Pastel goes everywhere with us just about and has her own mount on the dash of the truck !!  lol The Suriname isn't to fond of strangers and would act up if a strange person got to close, he usually only goes to the bars with me (LOL) .. other than that he awesome-ly personable and huge !!!

 I would like to eventually invest in a Brazilian Rainbow .. but they are like 15,000.00 domestic and there's a ban on them as imports.

Here's the normal Suriname. 2nd is the normal Pastel. Cool thread. :o)~

Yes, in many other areas, the odd or the striking are the object of desire, not the uniform, or the stable. Snakes are cool, as long as you have them, not me. We had boas when i was growing up, & it's amazing how much of a pet they truly are. They do recognise their owner, & respond to them, not in the same way our dogs do, but more than I would have expected. Still, I am just as happy to be done with them now. My granddaughter caught a rat snake at her house a couple years back, & came up to me to show me the 'skinny frog' she had found...I was very grateful it was not a copperhead! jackie harris

Boas are amazing. I had a male that would follow me around, curl up and sleep on the foot of my bed like a cat. I can't say I've had any others quite that responsive (or I felt that comfortable with), but he snake was something else. He passed. I still miss him.

I had a pastel, quite the opposite though. She looked just like your female, but the meanest SOB I've ever met. Grumpy inside her cage, down right aggressive once she was taken out. I rehomed her to a person who didn't mind an aggressive snake. I didn't want her around my kids. She was always a little sharp, but she kept getting worse.

Currently I have my large female, Halos, and two of her daughters that were born back in March. Halos is a normal boa, puppy-dog tame even after her litter was born. I kept one daughter with a striped tail, and the other than has a distinct "C" in one of her tail saddles. C for Carroll *lol*

For the non-herpers here, boas are one of several snake species that give live birth, rather than laying eggs. Halos had 20 in her litter: 19 live, and one stillborn. Not bad for a first breeding.



The rest of my collection includes a pair of ball pythons, an unsexed zonata California Mt Kingsnake, a sunglow motley Cornsnake, and a lavendar albino California Kingsnake. I rehomed a few proven and future breeders, and kept my favorites.

I'll post a few pics tomorrow; but don't worry Robin, I won't bring them up for show'n'tell in person ^_^

it's a pretty snake but why in anyones right mind want to own a snake when the first word in it's name is "killer" and why in the world would you pay 25000 for a snake? I think thats way over priced. You could almost buy a new car for that much.

Did you ever use this   www.geneticswizard.com/   pretty interesting if you wanna know exactly what the genetics of your herp is or is gonna be percentage-wise with a breeding.

I put together a whole 3 generaton pedigree for our female with that wizard. lol (I had alot of info from the breeders since I bought her at a show) Not so lucky with the Suriname. If I could find both breeders of the mom and then the dad to mine and ask questions I could get at least 2 generation pedigree.

I dunno if I'd want to breed Boa's, I know those guys over there with the Boafile have huge litters .. I couldn't imagine 30-40 tiny boa's waiting for their first meal !!!   LOL

THANK YOU! THANK YOU Julie C.! LOL!

Ha! I saw a breeder selling solid blue longcoat GSD pups for $5k a piece. Snake breeders aren't the only ones making bucks!