Hobbyist looking for input

[Jmonroe2105]

I'm just starting out and slowly growing my snakes and my collection. As I finish paying off the group I'm working on now, I'm looking to what 2-3 morphs would be most beneficial to my hobby breeding. I'd love your input! Here is what I currently have:

Males
Banana
Banana Enchi
Lemonblast

Female
Pastelcalico
Enchi
Enchi mojave
Pastave Het Hypo

[snowgyre]

I've been thinking very hard about which direction I want my collection to go in, so maybe I can help you out too and we can brainstorm this together.

There are a few genes that are hot out there right now, but I personally have decided to avoid them. I think the market is about to pop on some of these, given the rapid rise in the availability of these morphs and the subsequent price drop I've been observing. Combinations of these genes are still acceptable, but the straight-up single genes are probably not worth investing in right now.

List of the current 'must have' single-gene morphs I've decided to avoid:
blackhead
GHI
orange dream

The following is what I think have potential to hold their value for longer, either because of their newness to the market and the limited number of animals currently in existence, or because I feel the morph has a lot of potential but has been largely overlooked. Again, multigene animals are best, but single-gene females are still holding their value.

Morphs on my interested purchasing list:
hidden gene woma granite
disco
arroyo/rio
sentinel
paint
nazca
quake
black lace
white lace
desert ghost

The following are animals that are on my dreamlist but are currently outside my purchasing ability.

Dream animals:
scaleless head
sunset

It's also hard to go wrong with pied combos. In generally, recessive animals tend to hold their value for longer because it takes more patience, time, and energy to make combinations.

[Jmonroe2105]

Hi Vanessa!

Congrats on your Worlds First! That's awesome. I've got some interests in common with you. I like the Arroyo, Paint, Nazca, and Black Lace combos as well. I really like the desert ghosts but I'm not super impressed with how the combos look. Bamboos are also really nice and I could see maybe heading a bit in that direction!

Sunsets...one can dream! :D

[snowgyre]

Thanks! I was really surprised when that fire yellowbelly cinnamon orange ghost hatched out! He's getting better everyday too. Anything mixed with fire gets better with time!

I get teased a bit from friends, but I have made a conscious decision to completely exclude pastel from my collection. Part of it is an experiment. I want to see if I can accomplish a bright snake by using other genes that I feel are a bit more flexible than pastel. I've been using fire and yellowbelly a lot lately, and they've been working very nicely for me.

My collection is as follows, just to give you an idea of what I'm playing with. Osmosis is the new gene I've been playing with. More info on it here: http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=537268

Males:
fire yellowbelly cinnamon orange ghost
2 Osmosis Calicos
Osmosis
Disco yellowbelly possible het orange ghost
Dark Dinker (didn't prove this year, I think he'll prove as a recessive dark gene like black lace)
Mojave - 2015 son of dark dinker
Dinker (haven't bred yet, parents are amazing striped animals from David Reid)

Females:
Osmosis calico
Osmosis (founding female)
4 normals - 2015 daughters of male dark dinker
Pied
Ember 100% het orange ghost
Dinker harlequin (amazing looking animal)
Mojave
Cinnamon 100% het orange ghost
Normal
Enchi
Fire mojave 50% het orange ghost
Fire 50% het orange ghost
Arroyo

I've been saving up money for a possible Daytona Reptile Expo trip this year. I'm not exactly sure what I want and/or need for my collection at this point. I need a female to grow up for my FYBCinnieOG male, and she minimally needs to be 100% het for orange ghost. I'm looking for something off the wall though. I'm hoping I see something interesting at the show.

[SPJ]

Personally Vanessa, I would avoid the scaleless head/scaleless project.

[Dbz4246]

Ultimately it's hard to find what you want to do when you don't have the funds or space to get everything lol. It took at least a year for me to finally decide in what direction I would like to go in my collection. Answer? Black Backs. Any morph that naturally has a black back with an emphasis on clown :D. That is what I personally enjoy, so what you like is up to you. But don't always choose a morph because of the cash, if you breed for the love of it, you won't be disappointed.

[Jmonroe2105]

Thanks Jessie! I've always been attracted to the dark black/yellow combos. I think I like the contrast. That said, the patterning on the Bamboos is awesome and my Enchi girls dark head is just gorgeous! Hard to find a direction. I thought it would be Banana, thus the Banana Enchi and Banana boy, but I'm not so sure anymore.

[Dbz4246]

I thought it would be Banana, thus the Banana Enchi and Banana boy, but I'm not so sure anymore.

Yea that happens, but just remember that you can always try different things and if you end up not liking where your collection is going, you can always sell.

[Steves Serpents]

I am also a huge fan of the black\yellow contrast. You should look into some vanilla combos. This girl is sitting at 1000 grams and still really sharp. Vanilla stuff seems to have great appetites as well, from my experience with them anyway.

[cm5150]

Truthfully their are far too many ways to answer your question none of which would be wrong. My son and I have been slowly adding to the collection over the past 2 years and while we have a strong focus on recessives we ultimately are sticking to animals we like to look at regardless of genetics or demand. Lucally the route we went with recessives (double in most cases) fit most if not all the criteria.

Bottom line get what you like and let everything else fall where it may.