I was looking into buying a visual recessive female that was 66% poss het another recessive gene, but after discussing with some breeder friends, decided it was too much money for the gamble. The snake in question was $150-200 over the average market price of the stand alone recessive female.
This got me thinking. How much are you willing to gamble on poss hets? How do you price your poss het females? How do you decide when to take a risk?
Thanks in advance!
For me it would depend on what the poss het is, and if it helps me move forward to another goal.
Good question 
Personally as a buyer I don’t take any possible hets into account unless I’m picking between two exact animals.
For example:
Enchi Pied het Lavender albino
Enchi Pied het Lavender albino pos het clown
If they are of equal quality visually I will go for the pos het clown, but only if it was around the same price range.
But when I’m browsing generally, pos het doesn’t mean a thing to me. I’m browsing for the animal I’m after, nothing more, nothing less.
I wouldn’t gamble my years breeding plans on a possibility.
For me personally, it’s not a gamble I’m willing to take. I have a pretty small snake budget and not a ton of rack space, so when I’m looking to buy I want to be 100% sure that the snake fits into my plans. The only situation in which I’d consider buying pos hets would be if it were a super expensive morph I couldn’t afford any other way (like monsoon/tri-stripe), and then I might invest in 4-5 pos hets and try to prove them out.
I have a SuperPastel, 66 clown, 50 ghost, 50 desert ghost. The super made it worth it to me, I’m working with Ghost in the immediate, Desert Ghost is future, and Clown I hope to purchase a nice one, one day. It’s a female and has some growing to do but when she does, I would love to prove her out. I’m not shooting to get hypo or dg or clown off her and that be my only shot I would ideally like to breed visuals to her. She’s just a proving project which if she did could help everything come together. I won’t be disappointed if she doesn’t though. ****. I’ve been forewarned to not waste my time in hets from multiple sources. I think the way you approach it makes a difference and every specific situation is different.
I disregard possible hets unless it is something I don’t want. If is something I don’t want in my collection, I will pass up for sure. I do go for 100% hets though.
I don’t buy possible hets if they are priced any higher than they would be without the possible het. I also do not hold back possible hets.
I don’t ever buy hets in general. Unless I know and work with the breeder. I usually buy a visual male and make my own hets. In my opinion it’s the only way to get 100% hets lol. But this based on my personal experiences, I’ve been burned I’m the past.
Thanks everyone for your responses! =)
I definitely pick up possible hets, there is so much value in them imho. I have a few females right now that I’m growing up, sure some might not prove out, but if 1 or 2 do they pay for the lot of them. You must have a good eye, and also understand that things may not go as planned. I primarily stick to 66% hets though if I go the “possible” route. All of my possible hets involve 2 recessives though. My aunt would always tell me “SCARED MONEY DONT MAKE MONEY“, but to each their own.
I can’t knock possible hets. I picked up two this year and, between the nice price, and the actual appearance of the animals, made it very worth the effort.
Some marker trait animals are obvious, such as het pieds with track marks, or het clowns that stand out as enhancer types typically draw me in. A few years back, I picked up a pastel vanilla possible het pied. Her first clutch, to my banana het pied male, started crawling out of the eggs this morning. Mom barely shows any markers, and I recall buying her without a belly shot/picture.
