New clutch.. number still undefined

I am very proud to announce another clutch, and this one is dear to my heart. This female I produced back in 2008 from a 100% Het Clown male to a Pastel female. I kept back all of the females, and this girls sister is the one who produced for me the Pastel and Killer Clowns earlier this past weekend. 

So this is a normal sister, with one more Pastel possible het to produce (although I don't expect her to go this year).

I bred her to the Clown, but I am pretty sure I backed him up with the Pastel het Clown. We will see how things turn out. I hope she proves!

For a first time breeder, five eggs isn't too shabby!

Let's hope there are a few weird Clown faces in there when the time comes.

I caught her in the middle of laying as well, so she did an excellent job, and these eggs are pretty fresh in this picture.

Fingers crossed, my friends. 

And of course, my little Zebra Bee shed out. I'm pretty pleased about it! He looks AWESOME.

I can't wait to see him grow into his colors.

Have a great day, my friends.

We are ramping up for the Reptile Super Show this weekend... Are you going?

YPBMC continued

And again, we discuss those in the YPBMC club.

This here is my Pastel Pied male, surpassing 700 grams with no problem, he appears to be afraid of the ladies.

He has been spending time in the corner, enjoying the look of his scales as he hides his head within his coils.

While he is a gorgeous specimen of snake, he is also not a breeding machine as of yet. Fear not, my friends. I'm sure he will get his bearings soon, but as of today, he has yet to lock with any females.

And of course, the notorious two year in a row Yet to be Proven Breeder Male Club head, Homey D. Clown.

Homey has no interest in females, to the point where I felt the need to check his parts to confirm his maleness. He is for sure a male, but I have to say, he has no interest in using his said parts for anything as of yet. I am really counting on him to do something, as he is now almost three years old, and I have several clown projects that require his services.

He is the ONE male that would make me devastated if he didn't breed this year. My clown projects have been suffering (yet the females growing) for years due to his lack of interest. I have yet to hatch out any Clowns myself, cause I am giving Homey a chance to shine.

SHINE, HOMEY, SHINE!!!

And one male who decided to shine beyond the YPBMC club is the Super Pastel Lesser male. 

Albeit after several excrement filled moments and tail wagging, the Super Pastel Lesser male is doing his job with this Pastel Yellowbelly female. I am excited!

One crossed off the list...

Several more to introduce into the list, but hopefully to cross off soon.

Have a great day, my friends!

Funny looking and Wow!

I finally gave in to picking up another Clown. I really like her, and I am in Clown mode right now. I love that I finally have another one, albeit not as reduced pattern as the male, but pretty damned cool if I do say so myself. 

The head pattern is so cool! It's like a puzzle... Funny looking, but interesting.

She has a few years, but I have plenty of plans for her.

Fingers crossed for a quick growth spurt.

The Clown project is something that I didn't get into too strongly, and I'm trying to make up for it.

She's a start!

Pastel Lesser to Normal clutch blew me away after hatching.

NO NORMALS. This is redemption from last year and the double co-dom to normal ALL NORMAL fiasco.

Here they all are....

4.0 Lessers, 1.0 Pastel

And the gals...

0.2 Pastel Lesser, 0.1 Lesser

I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the results, although I would have liked to have more females...

Lesser males, anyone?

Have a great day, my friends

Hoooo Boy!

Well, today has been a crap shoot of emotions..

We have the bad to begin with. The POG to Het Hypo clutch hatched out, with the one POG and some Pastels Het Hypo and a Het Hypo.... but this little guy, the other POG.. didn't make it. It looks like its umbilicus was twisted and it died very recently.

This kinda hurts, because I have not gotten any Hypos so far this year other than the Pastel Orange Ghost male that made it. Would have been nice to have another... 

But at the same time, the Crystal clutch hatched out, and although there was only one Crystal, he came out already, and it's a HE! The rest are Specials, Mojaves and I think a Normal. We will see tomorrow or Weds for sure.

And of course, another interesting item... I come home from work to get ready to ship something, and a tub is wide open! The Clown male managed to escape apparently from my own lack of paying attention and leaving the tub cracked enough where he could push out.

So I get down on my hands and knees and search everywhere for this boy... It takes me a good thirty minutes, but I finally find him behind an adult females tub two racks over.

Here he is right after being found... no worse for wear.

So overall, things worked out well!

And things are still hatching out, so there are things to look forward to.

With that, I bid you a good day, my friends!

Market Analysis

Bryan asked:

"Heather, I'd like to hear about where you think the market is going, what things always sell and what you see becoming increasingly popular to work with. If someone was to have say either a $1000 or $5000 to invest in new animals, where would you put it" 

Well... This is a very interesting question, and I have to say that this answer is of course, from personal experience. 

Here we go. 

Things that will always sell?

Albinos and Lavendar Albinos. Pieds. Pastels. Mojaves/Lessers/Butters.

These morphs are always something that even Joe Blow wants to buy, because they are different, as well as look really cool with a decent price tag. Note that these are all under $1000 at this point, and yes, that seems to really help with the people who are not particularly into it other than to have a cool pet. 

Granted it is much easier to sell females of any morph than males, this is still the case.

What is becoming increasingly popular to work with?

Enchis, Mojaves/Lessers/Butters, Deserts, Pieds, Recessive Combinations. 

Enchis and Deserts are becoming more popular due to the combinations that they have been making, and the initial cost of them is becoming more reasonable. 

Mojaves and the BEL complex morphs are becoming overly in demand for the same reason. People can combine them into everything, and the demand is up. I want to make a point that this is not true of the Het Russos/Het White Diamond, which do not have enough distinguishing characteristics from a normal for most people to take them seriously.

Pieds are the most awe inspiring morphs for most people, and they want to combine them into everything. Again, same thing as the BEL makers, people want them to make more of them. This also segways into the recessive combinations, as Pieds combined with everything else is awesome, and combinations of het stuff is always a great way to go, although a bit more difficult to sell depending on who you are (aka your trustworthiness). 

Now if you have $1000 to invest? I would say get a recessive female or a co-dominant het for something female. Grow her up, get her big, and get a male in a year. (Save up for the male!)

If you have $5000 to invest? I'd suggest getting a few females on the lower end, and get a Desert male combination. That is the one morph I do not have and I regret not having. I see a lot of demand in it, granted not something I have any experience in selling, so I can't tell you how quickly they sell, but there seems to be a lot of interest in them.

Another way to go is get some of something newly recessive, maybe a Lavendar Albino male visual and a few het females.  

Or you can go big and get a double super female and grow her up and breed her to something awesome later down the line...

There are a ton of ways to do things, but I am all about recessives as a first pick up, as it is easier to get things done when you already have a few years invested in a legitimate het female.


So there you go, my friends. I hope this helps, and maybe you guys have any specific suggestions to Bryan out there as well? What do you think?

Have a great day, my friends.

Dilemnas

 This season is happening already, but there are a few problems that I have been having with some of the breeders. 

I don't have any Calico stuff as I had planned this year, so that is a complete loss, although I do have this very cool Pastel Calico female up my sleeve for the next few years or so.

 But what else, Heather, is happening over there?

Well... My Clown is gay. 

I have no problem with him and his life choice other than the fact that I have several poss het females and het females I would like to prove out this season that I have so far not seen any action from. 

And all because Mister Homey D. Clown decided he is scared of girls. 

This has happened here before, and sometimes all it takes is a little time and the right amount of prompting. 

So for now, he is getting a little break from everyone.

Let's hope he decides to work his magic, as I would LOVE to hatch out a few of his progeny this year. 

And I am just tickled about this gal in my arsenal. I love Spinners.. I just want to see what I can do with all of my Spiders this year. I have a bevy of them, and there are so many things to be done and so little time to do them. 

Here is one of my plans... 

Spider to Enchi. 

Wannabees, anyone? I can't wait!

What else am I planning with my Spiders?

Another attempt at Queenbees to say the least. Other than that, I'm not really sure. I'm just certain that I will have plenty of Spider stuff this season. 

Bzzzzz...

Enjoy the image, plan your dreams, and have a fantastic day, my friends.

ACK!

I am running out of time.

Things are getting busy, and I have to say that I do not have enough time in the day.

Right now, as we speak, I am trying to figure out what additional things I have to do before the show, which seems like tons.

I am getting shirts printed out, I am getting more acrylic displays, I am getting new cards printed out....

Doing shows is stressful, and this is the first of many this year, my friends.

I am mentally going a mile a minute, but with everything I have to do still, I am not really prepared.

But that's alright.

I have some time, and although I have way too much going on this week and next with other non-snake related things, the snake things are absolutely first and foremost.

So, here we are.

Random update: The Clown male, Homey, is doing fantastic in his quarantine rack with a few other of his friends. I was doing water and feeding, and he was the one I had to take photos of. I am very proud of him. He looks good! I can't wait to throw him in with some females next year... just not sure what quite yet.

And this is my holdback Black Pewter het Hypo, albeit washed out with the flash. I need to work on that, but he is really really nice. I am very excited to have him to plug into the Hypo stuff I have going on.

So there it is, folks. I'm off to go do some stuff, hopefully snake stuff, and I wish you a fantastic day!

Oh, to be humble...

I can't wait to be Humbled.

Really.

What do you mean, Heather?

KAPLOW!!!

Here it is, my friends.... My Humblebee project.

Humblebee, you say? What, pray tell, is that?

A Humblebee is a Pastel Orange Ghost Spider.

A Honey-Bumblebee.

Therefore, a Humblebee.

Yeah, I didn't name it, but... there you go!

Clutch #34 on the ground, babyyy. Not many left, but hey, I'm okay with that.

The Spider is supposed to be 100% het Ghost, but I have not seen her proven, so until then, she is a poss het! Lets hope that she is legit.

I am very excited for Humblebees. Please please please!

And let me introduce the newest addition to the brood of Heather's Herps. This guy has been a long time coming, and I finally broke down and got one to breed to all of the Hets that I have laying around.

I think I will call him Bozo.

Or maybe Homey D. Clown.

Yeah. I like Homey.

Welcome to the fray, Homey D. Clown.

And to those of you that don't understand the reference, here you go.

So yes, I finally do have a visual Clown here. YAY!

Have a fantastic day, my friends.