So I did see these two on the market as pastel axanthic.
The large female sort of resembles it. Again the guy only could remember it was a pastel. Do you think its possible?
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A single gene axanthic female is not worth $1600. At max one would be worth around $500 at that size. Just look around on MM and get breeding stock from there. Don’t waste 3 or so years and a ton of money on a female you know nothing about.
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Right I understand and im definitely not spending that type of money with someone who isn’t familiar with snakes. Again I love snakes and I personally think she is visually beautiful so I would like to have her in my collection. To only pay $150 I think is a pretty decent deal for her which he offered me
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The only thing that warns me about that statement is the price. 150$ for a female Axanthic of an unknown line…why so low? If he said the snakes were worth 1600$, which almost no pair of Axanthics would be worth without additional Hets or genes, why ask 150$? That seems shady and a little off to me.
Personally, and I know you’re excited, I would hold off man. You can find better snakes for a little more money and know exactly what they are, and be confident they are in proper health( which who knows with that one).
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Probably why it was sold at 150 because the owner of the shop knows they can’t get more without knowing the line. Honestly I think it all depends on what you are trying to achieve. If your more geared to having snakes as pets then go for it, if you just want to figure out the line for the fun of it not seeking to make a significant profit off of it go for it. If your looking to build up a solid breeding stock then get stock from a solid breeder.
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I don’t know why people are saying such unnecessary and rude things about it. (Mostly referring to the last two posts made to this thread)
Just because you personally wouldn’t do it, and you think it’s a pointless project, doesn’t mean you have a right to trash-talk other people who might be considering it.
Perhaps their comments aren’t really trash-talking, but still unnecessary and not contributing to the conversation in any way.
Personally, if I took on such a project? I would just sell the babies as normals, if they didn’t prove out. They’d make good pets for people just getting into the hobby.
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If you feel that potentially producing double hets that can be detrimental to someone’s collection is not in any way relevant to the conversation, then I don’t know what to tell you.
Sorry not sorry that I don’t agree?
This has been played out with albino Boas, Leopard Geckos, and Ghost Ball Pythons since the mid 90’s. The animal is pet quality. Nothing wrong with that. But to go breeding it to different known axanthics is going to produce problems. Unless you get really lucky the first time. I also do not believe in selling them as “ pets” to new keepers. I’ve seen some of those animals go from “pet” to “breeder” as soon as they change hands. Which statistically it will, multiple times.
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How exactly is this detrimental? If it’s there collection isn’t it really for them to decide if it’s detrimental? I don’t feel we should be telling other keepers what to breed or not breed. As long as there willing to take care of the offspring if they can’t sell them I really don’t see the problem here honestly.
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It creates a genetic mess. Especially if someone acquired one of these animals down the line as “het x”, then bred “het x” to “het x” ( or visual x ), you have that other trait ( let’s call it y ) still hanging around.
Let’s say a couple generations down the road, you get another person who has animals with the same issue, and produces visuals.
You sell the visuals as “x”, when they are really “y”. No way to visually discern the difference.
See the problem?
And yet…
We have reached the point in balls that corns have been at for years where there are so blasted many genes and poss hets and such floating around that random traits are just starting to pop up in people’s collections.
Easily a quarter of the breeders I know working with Ultramel ended up with it by accident because they bought animals from a certain breeder that had picked up a 66% poss het back in the day and never bothered trying to prove it out. Turns out is was a 100% het and the gene had been making its way through their collection in their DG group. People bought DG and DH hets and ended up getting the het Ultramel as a “bonus”.
Funny enough, I have never heard anyone complain about receiving this “free” extra gene
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Spot on Travis
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And what’s the chance that these babies, if sold to a breeder or someone who decides to get into breeding, gets paired with a visual axanthic? Especially if they’re sold as just normals/pastels/etc.? (Assuming OP isn’t able to prove out the axanthic the first time around)
Either way, the new owners/breeder would likely have purchased a visual from a reputable breeder, and would know what line it is.
They breed the visual axanthic to this “normal” to produce hets.
Let’s say they chose the “correct” line, and get visuals.
Then they’d be able to sell them as that line of axanthic. That other het floating around wouldn’t make any difference.
Now, even if they didn’t pick the “correct” one — the babies would all still be het for that line of axanthic, and thus could still be sold as such… the other hets would not affect it because nobody is gonna buy a het VPI and pair it to a TSK.
So really, no, it wouldn’t be detrimental. As @t_h_wyman said, people like bonuses.
A personal example of surprise hets: My very first ball python is a “normal” but shows several visual traits of a het pied, so I’ll be pairing her to my banana pied male once she’s up to size so I can prove out whether or not she’s actually het pied. I’ll be really excited if she does prove out, because that’s a huge bonus for me considering she was a pet store purchase. I spent I think $40-50 on her since the store was having a sale on their ball pythons. Typical higher end pricing for a normal.
Another thing — people don’t really breed normals. Usually they’re used to prove out morphs, if anything.
Especially males — I had a normal male once from a trade, but because he was useless in terms of breeding projects I opted to sell him to a pet keeper.
If my girl Delta doesn’t prove out as het pied — I’ll likely retire her from breeding since she’s mainly a pet, but if I did pair her again I’d find a male with a lot of morphs to pair to her, or use some of my visual recessive males to produce hets. But that’s about it.
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Was gonna say, I got a “normal” female 10 years ago. 5 years later I get an orange dream from a reptile show. A year after that I paired them…sort of a one time kinda deal, just to see…thought it would be cool experience.
Well first clutch I ever produced…3 normals, 1 orange dream and 1 piebald? What the heck is this? A pied out of no where?
I’ve been hooked ever since
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I think it boils down to if you buy something possible het and never prove it out are you going to sell there offspring as poss het? Say you buy a black pastel champagne possible het ghost. But you never pair it to a visual or het ghost are you going to sell all the babies as possible het too? I don’t think most people would.
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