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Are hets worth it?

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xoticreptiles22

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Are hets worth the time and effort. Im trying to get into morphs slowly and trying the most inexpensive way. I purchased one 100% het male that i will breed to two females next season. then i will take all of the hatchling females and breed them back to the male and mabey even buy another male het so i can breed every female hatchling. Are my odds good if i do this?
 
Hets

Yes that is the most inexpensive way to do it!! I purchased a male 100% Het Pied male, and bred to 3 female normals.. I will do the same and breed back the females.. I want to purchase a female het this fall though.. I think you get good quality snakes by raising the young ones, instead of buying more snakes from someone else. Just my two cents worth.. Good luck!! Mike Leonard
 
If you've got a lot of patience.... I love genetic stripe balls but I won't buy one until I can get two hets... I don't have the patience to make 50% hets and then breed all the females back... etc. But if you do mad props to you! I'd just worry about the prices going down in the meantime. Good luck, in any case!
 
maybe depends on your return if that is paramount ?...

in which way you go about it. Unless you are out there and famous as in a well known breeder or such, the market can become rather saturated in a short time and with many other breeders doing the same. I did that on the albino Burmese where i got some mighty big returns on the original investment in only the first year. After that the market became real saturated but for my pet store that saved me of the next several years of offspring sales ( down by anywhere of 50% or more ) I would of had a hard time getting a fair market price on them. If , for some reason, there is no huge investment return or huge income planned, then the slower route would be justified as mentioned. But as most have seen, also the market takes a turn about every 3 years or so and what is very popular now may not be in 3 years. As an industry we are also seeing more and more legislation being thrown around on species and some of this is on size and kinds of reptiles. This itself could hinder on the sales and returns. Some city ordinances do not let any large snake to be kept within city limits. The wording of laws includes large boids and pythons no matter what size. I had a city law come down that named specifically ( as other species ) ball pythons just because they were " pythons " and because they COULD reach a certain size in time. But then of course, I am one cynical old dude and all of this may not relate ?
 
I purchased a 100% het ghost and a 100% het albino and i plan on doing the same to both hets. I wasnt really worried about the market price falling because it takes some time to drop dramatically and albinos are still at the $2,000.00 mark in most places. if not higher. So by the time i produce an albino and a ghost i suspect the price to be $1,200.00-$1,500.00 which isnt bad and will help me invest in pieds,spiders,striped and so on...........
 
xoticreptiles22 said:
Are hets worth the time and effort. Im trying to get into morphs slowly and trying the most inexpensive way. I purchased one 100% het male that i will breed to two females next season. then i will take all of the hatchling females and breed them back to the male and mabey even buy another male het so i can breed every female hatchling. Are my odds good if i do this?
Click to expand...

You can use the same male to breed more than one female.

Hets are a good thing, and unless you have a large chunk of money, the only way that some people can afford to get the morphs they desire.

The most important thing about buying Hets is to know where they come from, there are a lot of shady people in this business.

It is worth it to spend a little more on your Hets and buy from someone that can be trusted, If you get a Het male and he turns out to be normal, you can waste 5-7 years trying to get the morph that you wanted only to wind up with a lot of normals.
 
old guy said:
. As an industry we are also seeing more and more legislation being thrown around on species and some of this is on size and kinds of reptiles. This itself could hinder on the sales and returns. Some city ordinances do not let any large snake to be kept within city limits. The wording of laws includes large boids and pythons no matter what size. I had a city law come down that named specifically ( as other species ) ball pythons just because they were " pythons " and because they COULD reach a certain size in time. But then of course, I am one cynical old dude and all of this may not relate ?
Click to expand...
Someone was telling me that one of the bay area cities, SF? Oakland?, I forget which one, but in the city limits, because of the wording on what's prohibited, Rosy Boas are against the law. Ridiculous.
 
Hets

Should i invest in a pastel male? I could use him to invest in ever other morphs. hows the market value on these guys? ive seen some this year as low as $750.00
 
i think the recessives will hold there value alot longer but in a few years we will be seeing the prices on dominate on co domninate come down alot
 
hets

Ive seen females spiders for $3,500.00 thats the cheapest i have ever seen and one female could get you well on your way.
 
"I want to get into morphs as cheaply as possible." - Yes they are worth it.

"I want to get into morphs as quickly as possilbe." - No they aren't worth it.

Depends on your priorities and budget. As said above (doesn't hurt to say it for the 34999th time) only buy from reputable sources. Let me give an example of what to look out for- there's a seller at a local show that have an entire table at every show of 50% hets.....how much do you want to bet there isn't a het in the bunch? 100% hets IMO are worth it if you are patient, 50% hets are never worth it IMO. At least with 100% het if you cross it with another 100% het enough times you will eventually get a homo. With a bunch of 50% you can certainly have bad luck and have all normals or never be lucky enough to match 2 hets together and get a homo. Do you really want to wait 3 yrs to find out that the 50% het you bought is nothing but a normal? If you are crossing that 50% het to a 100% het at best you can only guarantee that 50% of the offspring will be hets.......you essentially have a Crackerjack normal that might have a prize inside. As an example what's a 50% het for albino go for? $10 over the cost of a normal?

On the subject of buying from reputable sources consider this, if you buy a youngin' het right now you won't know for at least 3 yrs if you got ripped off. By then most shady sellers would have evaporated and popped up somewhere else under another name, that leaves you holding the bag and no recourse. After 3 yrs good luck making a credit card/Paypal claim or filing a fraud claim with the local police or federal gov't, that statute of limitations is probably long expired.
 
hets

My het came from crestedgeckos.com. he is a 100% het. Another question about paperwork!!!! If your het really doesnt prove out in the number of years offered on the paper, can you really do somehting about it. Or is it just something to make people feel safe?
 
Yeah, you can trust Garrick at Crestedgecko......his hets are legit.

If you had one you proved to not be a het you can go back to the seller and see what they'll do about it. A legit seller will make it right. You shouldn't be dealing with anyone that you don't know for certain to be a legit, stand up businessman.
 
xoticreptiles22 said:
My het came from crestedgeckos.com. he is a 100% het. Another question about paperwork!!!! If your het really doesnt prove out in the number of years offered on the paper, can you really do somehting about it. Or is it just something to make people feel safe?
Click to expand...

Depends on the seller and if he stands behind his guarantee.

You should also investigate, BEFORE you buy and raise hets, just what they guarantee if they don't prove out.

Are they going to simply refund purchase price? Who gets the original "Hets" back if they don't prove out? Breedable females may be worth more than the baby het was when you bought them, plus you invested 2-3 years raising them up.

Also in Het to Het breeding, if you get your females from a different source than the male, how do you know which one wasn't really a Het if they never prove out?

For example:
Purchase 1 100% Het Albino male as a baby from Johnny the BP breeder .

Purchase 3 100% Het Albino females as babies from Jimmy the BP breeder.

2-3 years later you breed them, no Albinos. wait another year, because the "guarantee" states "within two clutches they are guaranteed to give you an albino", breed them again, no Albinos.

Who do you go after? Is it the male that's a normal, or the 3 females?

Lots to consider when buying Hets. Cheaper, yet longer road to get the morphs you want, but with much more risk since you can't visibly tell if they are true Hets.....
 
I don't know if I would go so far as to say possible hets are never worth getting.

Back when het pied males where $12,500 a possible het was the only shot (although a gamble) at pied for most people. Of course now that 100% het males are a few hundred dollars the possible hets are much less appealing.

Even now female possible hets from a reliable source might be a good option for some. If you really can buy female 50% possible het albinos for $10 over normal or even a fair amount less than half of the 100% het female price they could work out good for someone with room for a bigger collection to diversify their risk. You could buy one for sure het albino female and risk her not feeding well or breeding as soon as you like or perhaps get 4 or more 50% possible het girls and you might produce albinos sooner. Of course it all depends on if you have the space and resources to work with more animals and if the gamble looks good to you.
 
markers

I have heard of het markers but dont know exactly what they are. My het albino male looks completely different from a normal male as in lighter,more white and so on. Are these markers?
 
xoticreptiles22 said:
I have heard of het markers but dont know exactly what they are. My het albino male looks completely different from a normal male as in lighter,more white and so on. Are these markers?
Click to expand...
I don't know that there are albino markers, as far as I know they can come in any variation of normal coloration.
 
Are hets worth the time and effort. Im trying to get into morphs slowly and trying the most inexpensive way. I purchased one 100% het male that i will breed to two females next season. then i will take all of the hatchling females and breed them back to the male and mabey even buy another male het so i can breed every female hatchling. Are my odds good if i do this?
Click to expand...

First you have to like ball pythons for what they are, and not by how much money they might bring. This will save you a lot of grief when things don’t go the way you expect them to go. Second buy from reputable breeders. You don’t have enough money? Then wait until you have it. It makes little sense to pay half the price for an hetero of dubious genetics and then learn years later that it was a normal. Using the same time-span to save money and then buy from the right person makes a lot more sense.

Good luck!
 
hets

Sure the money would be great but thats not why i wanna do it.I am extremely interested in pieds, albino ,spiders, ghost and so on,And i would love to have all of them in my collection. I used to breed corns and the feeling of an egg hatching for 1.1 normal hets is the greatest! Thats why i wanna do it.
 
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