$1500, which route would you go?

I have slowly established a nice solid breeding stock of standard BCI and BCC's. Their purpose is to help fund future projects through the production of their common stock. So, now comes the fun part. I have set aside $1500 for the purchase of a solid breeding age female or male in which to truly start my breeding projects.

So, here's the question. If you had $1500 set aside what boa would you purchase? Albino? Triple Het? If bred to a normal, which one would maximize the net worth of the offspring?

Ideally, I am wanted to see a return on my investment within the next 12 months. With breeding season starting up in 5 months I don't forsee that being an issue. Thanks!

Bob Woodard

i wouldnt buy a morph i would go with locality like peruvian(pulcapa and iquitos[sp?]) from good stock or some of the offshore island morphs of contrictor but thats just me i am a locality nut. i dont really know what the hot new thing in boa morphs is right now

I'd go to Vegas and well...you know the rest...what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

oh but i do like the t+ argies and the t+ bci and those ummm damn i cant remember the name but when i do ill post it

Bob,
If your primary reason for breeding boas is to make money - you've got a long road ahead of you. If you want to maximize your investment, play the stock market or buy 1500 lottery tickets.

Unless they set up on a much larger scale, most people will do well to make enough money off of the offspring to support the addiction.

With that said, there is money to be made in both the locality and morph markets, but neither one will produce overnight results. You are obviously better poised to work with the morph market as your existing animals are not locality specific.

There are several choices in the morph markets, but all will require some thought on your part.

The albinos can be very exciting, but the bloodlines have been so abused that it is difficult to find animals without weakened genetics. A normal-looking albino boa may well have siblings with eye deformities and thus carry the associated genetic material.

I would suggest looking at some of the heartier morphs and bloodlines.
The Salmons, the Hypos, and the Anerythristics are all very interesting to work with and all have great potential when bred into other morphs.

Rather then dropping $1500 on one animal and hoping for the best, that same money could buy a nice pair or possibly trio to work with. The male could easily service both it's intended mate, as well as one or maybe two of your existing females. For that matter, in your circumstances, a reverse trio, might make even more sense.

My best advice to anyone wanting to work with boas on anything more then a casual basis is to try a produce something a little different then everyone else is working with. The classifieds are filled with hundreds of boas of various genetic morphs and localities, but when the truly unusual and/or recognizable animals are made available - everyone gets excited.

You may breed boas for years before that "unique" opportunity presents itself to you, but in my mind that's part of the fun.

With all of the diversity swimming around in the boa genetic pool, you really never know what you've really got. Stealing from Forest Gump: Boas are like a box of chocolates - you never really know what you're going to get!

I hope I'm not rambling too much - and this at least gives you something to think about.

Good luck with your decision.

Mike, I greatly appreciate your advice. My goal is not to quit my day job. My ultimate goal is to be part of this wonderful hobby that I left 10 years ago when I started my family. I agree with you on why follow in the footsteps of others by creating the same thing. I certainly want to do "my own thing' but I also know that I need to spend some money in order to obtain solid genetics. I am in no way interested in animals that are so mutated that they have loss their ability to live in a manner that is appropriate. Nobody benefits from deformities etc. I do however want to be in a position by this fall to start breeding vs purchasing juveniles now and having to wait a few years. I have already dropped several thousands of dollars on this hobby by creating a seperate room in my finished basement in which to house these. It gets a bit hard to justify the investment to the little lady without being about to promise a return on investment within the next 12 months. Especially when the space my "reptile room" was suppose to house her sewing room!

At this point I am leaning more towards a solid albino strain and simply strengthening there genetics by improving on color and health. However, with all of the new morphs coming out on the market I am open to just about anything. Again, I appreciate your insight!

Bob Woodard

Mike tossed out some good points...I have to throw some questions at you. you say you have built up some breeding stock, and now want to invest approximately $1500 on an adult female...or maybe a male. question one - Which do you need? what does your current group consist of (males.females, and age/size)? are there any hets in your current group? (if not, purchasing hets will not be of much benefit...possible hets are not much of a fundraiser). If you want to end up with something other than normals on the first breeding (if your current stock is all normal), you will need to go with a codominant trait: ie. Salmon/hypo. Not sure you could grab one for $1500, though. Albinos are nice - I'm going for sunglows myself (gotta purchase that male next year) - but again, it is doubtful that you will get a sexually mature adult for $1500. Bottom line is you have to figure out what you want to work toward, then take the steps to get yourself there. That may mean investing in something younger, and just breeding your current stock to get things going while the new kid grows. Not necessarily a bad thing - gives you time to work some of the kinks out.

oh i remember leopard boas.... but all the morphs i listed are out of my price range

Right now my collection consists of all females and one male. All but one of the females are normal with the one exception being more of a hypo and with some very nice pastel coloring on her underside. At this point, I am probably leaning the male route given the number of females I have. I am still catching up on the whole genetic issue. We did not really have the genetic thing going back a decade ago. A lot has changed since then!

Bob Woodard

I know what you mean, I recently came back to this after what was essentially a 7 yr hiatus. there was a lot of morph breeding around (in cornsnakes and burms), but several of the markets have exploded since then...including boas and balls. Alot of the morphs are simple recessive traits - which means that when bred to a "normal", you will get normal looking babies which carry the gene (called heterozygous, or het, for that trait). when snakes that are het for the same trait are bred, some of the babies will be visible morphs, some will be hets, some will be normal. With a codominant trait (pastels and hypos being the most affordable in the boa market), breeding to a normal will yield visible morphs and normals...no such thing as hets.
With regard to your collection: Given the length of gestation and recovery for the females, many people cycle their animals (year on, year off). boas are prolific enough that you will still have plenty of babies to deal with. I don't know how many females you have, but a good male can/will breed several females in a season. depending on your goals, you may not need to bother with another male. On the other hand, a single male can introduce a trait to multiple females; so if you are going to move away from "normals", a male would be a good idea. the issue, as usual boils down what you want (desired end) and how much you are willing to give (time, space, and money) to get there.