Tuesday, March 1, 2011

I love your questions!

Alrighty!

This makes my life easier by answering comment questions, especially since I am in the midst of doing a few other things online, like always.

Let's begin with Rob:

"what do you use for hatch racks??"

Well, I have three different racks I use for hatchling racks.

The first and my favorite is the Boaphile Hatchling Racks, which apparently are not being manufactured much anymore. I have a few of these, and I use them for the newly hatched babies. They do very well in there, and the humidity and temps hold very well in these guys. Thumbs up!

The second and also very nice is the Jason's Jungle Hatchling Racks, which are a bit more basic in structure, but I really love them. 6 qt tubs, and good solid construction. Apparently, however, he is getting out of building racks, so the comparable rack I would suggest would be Animal Plastics, which makes excellent products. Thumbs up!

The third and albeit very nice, not my favorite, is the Vision Hatchling Racks. I have a hell of a time getting the humidity correct with these tubs, especially for the smaller animals. But, they look and work well for what they offer. And with 72 slots, I am happy in terms of the space it offers. Thumb up! (Yes, one... Not both)

So there is one question answered.


And on to the next one.

Chris R. is asking about breeding plans and what one should have:

"how about a blog regarding owning males vs females of certain morphs, hets, etc. Which morphs do you specifically want females for or males and so on."

Well, let's touch on this briefly, and I will go into it in a bit more detail another day.

In the perfect world, with lots of money to spend on snakes, what do I suggest you do?

Get whatever you want and breed it.

If that is not the case, which I know isn't the case for me, and for most of you all out there, what should you do if you have a limited amount of cash and a limited amount of space?

Well, let's do it two ways.

Recessives? Get Recessive females if you can, or 100% hets if you can't. Get a co-dom visual recessive, i.e. Pastel Genetic Stripe or Spider Pied. If you can't do that, get a visual male. Breed what you can when you can, and trade or sell up for what you want to achieve in the end.

You want to make Super Pastel Genetic Stripe Ghosts?

Well, if you can get visuals of everything, that would be awesome. That way you are cutting down on the time that it would require to breed your animals to get to the top of that mountain of your goals. If you can't? Get some Visuals and Pastels. Breed in, get out your gals, and look for your power male while you have your females growing up.

For this project, in the perfect world, other than just buying the animal outright, I would start with a Pastel Genetic Stripe female het for Ghost, a Pastel Orange Ghost het for Genetic Stripe male. Or vice versa, which ever you can find it. 

If not, get a male POG, breed it to some Visual or Het Genetic Stripes, and hold the females back. Or get a male Pastel Genetic Stripe and breed it to some Ghost or Het Ghost females.

The project will take a while, but hey, it'll be worth it!


Co-doms. Get them! Get many females of base morphs if you want, but if you can, get some double or triple females to grow up. While growing them up, wait for a power male. A power male depends on what you can afford, be it double co-dom or quintuple co-dom, make it happen.

You want to make a Super Pewter?

In the perfect world, Sterling to Silver Bullet. Or Super Pewter to Super Pewter... Duh.
If you can't do that? Pewter to Pewter. Or, get a Sterling male or something else powerful (Silver Bullet) and breed it to a Pastel or Cinnamon female. Take those females that you hatch out and grow them up too. That way you can get your Super Pewters in a few years.

Now I will touch on what I do specifically another day, with examples of my own holdbacks.

I hope that has gotten you a bit interested and in anticipation.

MWAHAHAHAHAH!

It will be awesome, I promise.


Alright, off to do some homework. Have a fantastic day, my friends.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Have you heard anything about reptile basics racks?

Unknown said...

Keith,

I have one of them, and I have to say, they work well, but they are not my favorites. They tend to get stuck, and I don't do well with stuck tubs.

-H

Unknown said...

Do they get stuck because of the feet on the tubs or the warping of the racks?

Unknown said...

They get stuck partially because of the feet, but also because there is no groove or anything to allow for some give in the tub track. It's smooth, and the tubs (Iris) are with the feet. It's a pain, but I guess you can sand down the feet?

Jackie said...

So Heather, what do you use for adults racks? And what's your tub size for adults (especially for big breeder girls?)

I was looking at Animal Plastics. Have you used them?

Jackie said...

Oh, I just found your thumbs up on Animal Plastic in there. Okay, I think we are go for AP here, then.