My wife and I picked up a Banana Enchi male at a show and we have been thinking about picking up another morph to breed him with. We have been doing research on gene combinations and we are blown away by the options.
I kept several species of snakes, including ball pythons when I was younger and am confident in my husbandry, but I was keeping them in the late 90s and there were hardly any more available at an accessible price.
Would love some opinions on what would make some great combos with my current snake! Our price limit is around $400. Thanks in advance!
Personally I would take your $400 and split it. I would get a black pastel female, and I would get an enchi fire or enchi cinnamon female. Black pastel bananas, cinnamon bananas are very nice 2 gene snakes and you could hit a super enchi banana which would be a heck of a bonus they are sweet!
MorphMarket is a great new (relative to late 90s) tool you can use to see lots of genes and combinations.
Be warned, though, that we are at a bit of an awkward phase with a lot of reactions to specific genes. If you really love spider then go for it, but be warned of the current public temperaments. Black pastel also falls in that list. Lesser, Woma, HGW, champagne… There’s a few. I don’t necessarily agree with some of the reactions but it might be worth mentioning if you want to avoid the headache.
It might be worth starting with “safer” staples like:
Russo (BEL)
Pied
Mahogany
Mojave
Pastel (always popular)
Lavender Albino
More Enchi (always popular, super Enchi bananas are nice)
Bamboo
Heeey! My first boy is also banana enchi (100% het pied). As for inspiration, just the last week i got him a queen bee gf (lesser pastel spider) and once they grow up i’m looking up for some cute enchi pastels and banana spiders. That and i would realy realy love to get a bamboo to the mix.
The awesome thing about MM is that you can filter the snakes by price, gene, and age. So just see what catches your eye that is within your budget. If you get something then definitely share it with us all!
$400 may not be enough if you get a fancier morph, seeing as you are going to need an older female. If you get a hatchling you will need to wait at least 3-4 years for the female to get to breeding size. You may not even be able to get an older female, seeing as not many breeders will give up a female that they took time to raise.
Agreed but I was just operating on the parameters. Totally possible with 400 to get a couple possibilities at least you’re right about the time for a female tho fosho
The other advice I would give is to decide what you like. If you like the lighter colored snakes since you bought a banana, see if you can find more lighter colored morphs. You could even try to find a female banana to breed with if you really love the banana morph like me! I also love the pied gene and my big breeding goal is to produce some banana pieds.
You could go Champagne with the Banana. We produced a clutch from a GHI/Champagne Male to a Banana Lemonblast female and it was amazing. Check out this girl for sale. If the other genes prove out she is a steal. https://www.morphmarket.com/us/c/reptiles/pythons/ball-pythons/298581
Sadly the nice oranges in champagne bananas fade with age, and a lot of the yellows do too unless you add something like pastel to it.
Here is my banana champagne pastel het VPI axanthic:
Lookit that face.
But yeah, I am picky on my champagne combos. I do like VPI champagnes though, and the other genes with him were well worth the only $375 I paid for him. That said, banana with Mojave/any other dark gene is lovely. If there was a cinnamon adult female in their price range I would have recommended that. Cinnamon banana is
Actually I do like him if it washes out pattern but leaves a nice color like that It’s much better looking than some of the stuff it does in other combos.
Not all genes are good with EVERYTHING…I think Champagne is one of those where I’m a little more picky as well but there are still great combos out there
I understand about Champagne and that not everyone likes it. You’re right it has to be paired with the right genes. Looking forward to pairing our Champagne Enchi Pastel girl to my GHI Shatter male. Shatter and Champagne do some cool stuff. Huffman is another cool gene to put with Banana though. Especially if you like alot of freckling.
I would avoid mousers since it can take a while to get em back up to weight after breeding, especially if you plan to do maternal incubation.
