I had a really hard time with this myself actually. Intejd to gravitate toward males for some reason, of all species. If i like it a lot, im 95% assured its got bulges.
As a result, im now forcing myself to really focus and only getspes if they help myvplans, and i dont already have something that will work for those sake plans.
For example. My hognose collection rn consists of:
Arctic male, no hets
Normal het 100% albino, 66% axanthic
Normal superconda, het 100% snow
Albino conda
Toffeebelly, 66% axanthic
.1 albino conda
.1 normal het toffee (she was labelled as a toffee, clearly isnt, and breeder claims mom was toffee.)
I am so male heavy on hognoses its not even funny. I dont need the second male listed above, since i have the third. But its unrelated lines, and after losing my axanthic het albino female im okay doubling up on generics for my foundation group, wspecially with the possibility of anfemale eating a male.
I should have been focusing on buying a female at the expo, but i genuinely needed a male toffee and the breeder is a reputable one and has nice animals and gave me a deal. 100% justifying that purchase, but now i really, really need to focus on obtaining females.
For me I think I can definitely be impulsive but I try to plan my purchases accordingly. However I have purchased a few ball pythons on impulse. Sometimes you come across a great deal thatās hard to pass up. A few years ago I found an enchi firefly proven breeder female for 250. I couldnāt pass that up lol. But I try to plan my purchases around my projects. Right now Iām focused on desert ghost clown. So I purchased female double hets and even a clown 100% het Dg. This summer I will purchase the male that Iāll use for them. So definitely both lol
It sounds like the mojave you found locally isnāt het pied, and you said youād prefer a het piedā¦ thatās exactly what an impulse buy looks like, donāt settle for less than you wantā¦ a mojave het pied will come up for a good price and youāll be upset you settled and donāt have the money still that you spent on the snake that was only half of what you wanted! Iāve done it enough to know not to do it anymore! Hope that helps.
No, youre right, she is not het pied. Soā¦ sort of impulse, altho i do have possible plans of other, non-pied projects in the distant future. I got her as a dual purpose project. Do i regret buying her? Absolutely not. Was she a definitive, planned out purchase? No. But i also messaged the seller based on genes and not pics, so there was intent behind the decision.
I hae only kane and her now, for bps, i am far more decisive in my hognose purchases. But i also have much for definitive plans as far as what i want to produce for them.
For me Iām keeping and breeding mainly leopard geckos. I have a couple pets but I try not to have too many (food is expensive, lol). I consider them pets if I keep them and they donāt fit into breeding plans. The two pets I have are my first leopard gecko and one that looked super awesome and I might try to reproduce her patterns and colors (Bullseye if you remember). I also have a blazing blizzard but Iām going to sell her this week to someone.
I try to avoid impulse purchases but I will buy them if I like them and breeding them can hopefully cover (most) food expenses. I wonāt buy just to breed but if I see one and have an idea of what I can produce Iāll buy them.
In the future Iām going to work on some snake projects. For those Iām going to start off only getting what I need and if I see something I like Iāll either try to work with some breeding projects for them or get it as a pet. For the most part it has to be something I really love to get it as just a pet but I will buy something if I see it at an expo and I have room and it fits into my projects.
I donāt make impulse purchases but I gladly take great deals from people I trust if they fit into a project that I might jump into. For me purchasing, it is hard because I donāt have a full time job yet (trying to get hired at an audio engineer for my church) but I also believe in purchasing high value breeders (like Willow). Currently Iām looking at getting high value Sterling combos and img combos, but would love to get Jungle, Aztec, Albino, and Motley into my blood pool.
As for food being expensive, have you considered making a bioactive terrarium to breed bugs? I know of a few people that do this with great success, and get more nutritious feeders because they control what their feesers eat :).
Iāve been trying to start food colonies for geckos. Iāve had success with mealworms and I just had some hornworms hatch so Iāll be raising them up. I recently (re)started a dubia colony that will hopefully produce.
Have you looked into isopods? I would look up if porcelia scabers are acceptable food, they are extremely prolific breeeders and easy to care for if you are having trouble with the dubias. If you need something bigger but also fast breeding, dairy cows may be an option, but they are protein focused, so im not sure if it could be a problem for a soft skinned reptile like a gecko.
Thatās a good idea. I did a little bit of research and they look okay as an occasional feeder. I donāt think they would breed fast enough to be used as a staple and they arenāt super nutritious but I think thatās a good idea for occasional food. I would feed out of a dish, otherwise they would attack the gecko. I might try feeding a few zebras to my geckos later just to see how they react to them.
The dairys may, but i doubt the scabers would cause any issueā¦ as for breeding fast enoughā¦ I started with 20 about 6 months ago, im pretty sure i have hundreds now. The latest brood i just cant even attempt to count. Once the colony is established, it will produce plenty fast enough xD. The dairys im not sure on their breeding speed, but it is slower than the scabers, so really their size is the main advantage.
I donāt breed or have ball pythons, but it seems like the floor is open to all reptile keepers, so Iām gonna answer anyway.
My KSB was a little impulsive, but mainly because she was a re-home. A friend told me about someone she knew who needed to re-home his sand boa, I told her to give him my number, and I had the snake on my dresser about 24 hours later. I wasnāt necessarily planning to get that specific snake at that moment, but I had been looking to get some sort of relatively low-maintenance snake, and the stars just sort of aligned for me to get Phoebe.
My blood python was sort of half planned, half impulsive. My roommate had moved out and taken her large ball python with her, so I had a python-shaped hole in my home and heart. Iād wanted a blood for a long time, and realised that I finally had the time, space, and money to properly care for one. So I did a little research, found the MM marketplace, and started browsing, still not quite sure I would actually pull the trigger. I saw my girl on there, and just kept returning to her picture. She was just what Iād been looking for. I researched her seller, and he seemed legit, so I sent an inquiry. He got back to me in mere minutes, and the sale moved pretty quickly after that. Before I knew it, Iād purchased her. I had a brief moment of panic when I woke up the next morning, thinking āoh g-d, what have I done?!?ā I made sure I had everything I neededā¦and then the weather delayed shipping for about a month, so by the time she finally arrived, I was more than ready for her.
Both. I buy to a breeding plan butā¦ if I fall in love with something, it does not matter about the plan for me, its just a wonderful snake.
I still have others just for my breeding plans, but they are all types I like alot anyway
One of those impulse buys was just a pastel lesser but really nice green and yellows to my eye. I like her so much, (against my breeding plans) I decided to try and selectively breed to improve the colours. Just for my pleasure.
To me, thatās the best reason to undertake a project. Thatās how so many morphs have happened, in fact. Someone saw something special in an animal or a small group of animals and had the passion to make it grow. We in the larger hobby are fortunate to share in the results of their work and their pleasure.
Iām a Pet-keeper, not producing any myself, and this was my first snake so my choosing was with a slightly different goal in mind. I didnāt have project as part of my keeping plans. I suppose if I had a menagerie/collection, spaces open in habitats, and breeding plans, Iād be tempted to pick up a fantastic critter on a little bit of an āimpulseā when Iād been thinking of adding to my lot and a great one pops up. But as I say, this is my first snake, and second reptile after a sad experience years back.
I did months of learning and research, and I had narrowed it down to a couple of possible species, when I found out about Black African House Snakes. Everything that appealed to me in a snake, manageable care, but also one of the most beautiful animals I had ever seen? My choice was made!
As a last experiment I went to Clintās Reptile Room and held a lot of snakes, including his Black African House Snake, to be absolutely sure if this is what I wanted. And well, snakes are magic. Thereās something just so calming and beautiful about mellow snakes.
Iāve recently had to ban myself from browsing the marketplace (specifically the boa, retic, and short tail sections) so that I donāt impulse-buy something. I want another snake so badly, but now just isnāt the right time, and Iām trying to be responsible. But itās just so hard to exercise self-control while looking at lovely snakes that call to me, haha.
Instead, Iām trying to redirect that energy into getting my first tarantula. They require a little (or a lot) less investment in terms of space and money and Iāve wanted one for a while, so now feels like a good time to take that plunge. Plus it will hopefully help to prevent me from breaking down and impulse-buying a large constrictor.
With me getting back into the hobby about 2 years ago my biggest thing against ball pythons was just the massive amounts of for sale and the number of combos. I always liked pieds but weāre out of my price range as a kid, I been focusing on expanding last 6 months since I moved into my house. With that being said I been buying alot of v70 racks for my larger geckos and been passing on every ball python until my last rack I bought guy had an adult pair 1100 Gram male and 1650 gram female pied. For 1k for the pair seemed like a a good deal so got them, now for the impulse about 2 weeks ago surfing for another rack while at work and find a big 3400 gram female pied. Drove 2 hours after work and picked her up.
Biggest thing is buy/work with what you like not what other people like and you will due fine. Iām limiting myself to one rack (9 high) for ball pythons and very unlikely to go over that for my other reptiles take up a good bit and I donāt want to breed rats. I raise all my feeder insects (super worms, mealworms, dubi roaches, red runners) for my other animals and takes up alot of time as it is
