To focus on a few (and I mean 2 by few) projects. I have too many side projects. I am choosing to work with pied and desert ghost. I do not plan on keeping anything I make, my only hope is the snakes can support themselves. My husband is going to do a leopard project, but that’s his deal. When did you guys decide what your focus is.
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Sounds like some cool projects, can’t go wrong with Pied or Desert Ghost! I am still trying to find my own project but I think I want to make some Desert Ghost and Ultramel combos along with some smaller stuff for fun.
The best approach is to focus on the projects that appeal to you most. Having a scattered collection with no direction leads to incompatible pairings and lowered potential. Great idea to focus down. I come from the boa world (since 2003) and am diving in with ball pythons for the first time with dreamsicles. The incredible variation of pieds combined with lavender albino is outstanding and the project has plenty of potential for further refinement. Being a double recessive helps hold value. I have two projects in mind after dreamsicles, monarchs and desert ghosts. I am drawn to mutations that produce animals that look great into adulthood and both of those fit the bill. Before I go the monarch route I want to see conclusive evidence they are incompatible with the much more common ultramel mutation, which I have yet to see. I dont believe they will be compatible but if they unexpectedly are I think the project may be significantly devalued. My 8yr old son has shown interest in ball pythons and did great in school last semester so we rewarded him with his first animal, he chose to get into ultramels. I like to think of them as a “budget monarch”, as they are quite similar. It will be fun working with both to compare down the road. There are so many fantastic directions to go with ball pythons and there’s certainly something for everyone.
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I decided my focus would be on pinstripe, pied’s, bamboo, and leopards (with a hint of banana) thrown in. I decided on those morphs because I overall liked how a lot of snakes look, especially pinstripes. It think that’s the ground work of producing some incredible snakes with simple, and less expensive morphs to start off with.
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Focus is often key, I have seen people getting into too many things and they don’t really achieve much of anything because they are too stretch out.
I always had a somewhat main focus but when I first started I knew I needed those other side project to help me fund that main focus.
6 years ago I restructured my collection narrowing it down to Hypo, Clown and Pied combos, now I have stated another restructuration so in the next 4 years all I have left are Pied combos (which still includes some double recessive and some select combos with YB, Enchi, Banana, Blackhead etc)
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Started out thinking I wanted a clown project. But ended up deciding on genetic stripes instead. At least to start.
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Pieds ghosts and clowns for me 
love recessives. long ways to go before I have my startup stock all complete.
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I’m mainly going to be focusing on pied, axanthic, and albino for now for my recessive projects. I’d like to make things such as axanthic pieds, albino pieds, and banana pieds. So, I think my collection will turn out to be mostly pied stuff lol
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I like your focus. My main focus has been pied, clown, spider, and blackhead for my spider projects.
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Work with what you like but make good business decisions at the same time. If you want to be successful in this hobby/industry, then become known for something.
I have pied and clown in my collection but my focus is not chasing JKR projects. There are 1300+ clowns and 1500+ pieds listed on MM right now. A lot of these combos are awesome but understand that when you hatch them and put them on your table, there is a high chance that those combos will also be on the table to your left and the table to your right.
Focus is essential, but so is figuring out how to make your snakes shine
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It took me three years and 26 snakes later to realize what my main/side projects would be lol.
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Everyhing is better with Desert Ghost!
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Orange dream pied 
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Definitely is, i recently brought a desert ghost pinstripe can’t wait to pair him with few of my girls!
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My question is how are you going to have a desert ghost and pied project but not keep any of the offspring? Just going to sell Hets?
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Thinking the same ,surely a project you keep back some the off spring to work to get what your looking for
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I will hold back a pair obviously. Probably a male and 2 females. Increase my odds. Once I get a pair of visuals sell the hets, and just make visuals. Long term plans of not keeping anything. I want a desert ghost pied, and in the end they will support themselves. We are doing the same with orange ghost pieds. In the end I will work with nothing but recessive genes and only 3 if them.