Patternlessness

I'm spending more time in the snake room trying to get myself back on track. It's been a few days of being "off" due to all the things that are going on.

While centering myself and breathing, I like to spend time in the snake room taking photos. Beauty offsets any problems I am dealing with at the time for the moment.

So here we have a photo spread of some patternless animals I have shown occasionally, now more adult and more colorful.

Above we have a Silver Bullet, which is in this case a Black Pastel Cinnamon Pastel. I love the grey tone that this female exudes. The one thing I regret is not having a Super Cinnamon or something to compare the shades of grey, but I do have a Super Pewter below that is stunning.

Super Pewter is a great name for this snake, since it really is Pewter toned, almost silver.

And the yellow splotches, grey and black patches and white spots are all just icing on the cake. Just so interesting looking at such a "patternless" snake with a bunch of random dot pattern.

I really like looking at these two together. Just a brighter lighter grey between the two (Silver Bullet and Super Pewter) and the great comparison. Always a fun thing to look at. 

And of course, this gal here has not been shown often, but she was looking amazing. This here is a Pastel Super Mojave female. She is epically yellow right now, and of course her head looks fantastic as well. I had to take many photos, and how else to incorporate her into the blog but to add her with the other patternless critters. 

So pretty!!

Anyway, enjoy your day my friends. Have a great one!

Super Pastels? Yes!

 This was supposed to end out the week last week, and I didn't get to it, so here we are. 

Above, we have a Super Pewter (Super Pastel Super Cinnamon), my only gal, and a Super Pastel!

Below, we have a Silver Bullet, a Pastel Super Cinnamon. 

With these animals, I have to say that it is very obvious that there is a bit extra going on in the Super Pastel section of the combination.

As you can see above, the Super Pewter is SILVER. Very silver. 

And the Silver Bullet is more of a mottled darker grey. 

These animals are only a few months apart in age, so the color difference is striking without involving age difference.

With just adding another pastel element to this morph, it brings the color to a whole other level.

I have to say, it is very obvious, although given a year or so, we will revisit these critters to see what the heck they look like and if they have such a striking difference in color then. 

So again, what to take from this?

Super Pewters and Silver Bullets are awesome. 

Also, if you want a brightening element to a morph, Super Pastel-ling it would be a good idea. 

Of course, as we touched on before, other highlighter morphs are also worthwhile to integrate, such as Fires, Vanillas, etc...

But Pastels, being a base morph that is easily accessible, I suggest starting there for those who are beginning out.

Pastels make most things awesome. 

Super Pastels make most things even more awesome.

How can you go wrong?

Have a great 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.

SOOOPER!!!

Once upon a time, Heather dreamed about what some of her project goals were...

And she came to the conclusion that Super Pewters were one of them.

So she tried and tried, and hatched out Silver Bullets (Super Cinnamon Pastels), but never the elusive Super Pewter... 

UNTIL NOW.

Here are two photos, pretty much with flash and without. These photos compare the Super Pewter with the Silver Bullet. The Bullet is a few weeks to a month older than the Super Pewter, but I did this more to compare coloration. 

I wish I had a Super Cinnamon or Super Black Pastel to put in there too... 

THAT would have been an awesome photo, right there.

But this will have to do. 

I am really surprised how much an extra Pastel gene does to the coloration of this morph combo.

The Super Pewter, as we well know, is a Super Pastel Super Cinnamon (or Black Pastel, but that would be a Super Black Pewter).

A Silver Bullet is a Pastel Super Cinnamon.

 As you can see, it is darker, with less Silver, but with the same general lack of pattern. They are both AWESOME looking, and I expect them to start gold speckling like Lucky did over the next few months.

The Bullet already seems to be starting to. 

What am I talking about? 

Well, this is Lucky. See his spots? They just popped up over time. They are yellow/gold.

I expect the others to do the same. 

Should be fun watching them grow up. 

So there you go, people. 

Granted, it is not a full color tutorial, but I think it works for the time being... or until I get a Super Cinnamon or Super Black Pastel. 

But I think this should be good enough.

Have a fantastic day, my friends.

BTW: I'll be vending at the Pasadena Herp World Expo this weekend. I hope to see some of you there!

HAWT!!! And Super Pewter

So here in Southern California, yesterday and today more than likely have been the hottest days of the year.

It reached a scorching 111 degrees Fahrenheit in my area.

Yes...

That does say One Hundred and ELEVEN degrees.

Why are you complaining about this, Heather? I live in __(Enter City Here)__ where it is that hot in December!

(Cities that come to mind are Vegas, Anywhere in Arizona or Texas, etc...)

Well, my friends, I still have the incubator on... And where it is located in the house is not conducive to keeping cool, which leads to overheating incubators.

Yes, there is central air, but when it is 111 outside, it takes a LONG time to cool down.

So I was and am concerned about the next few days, as not only did I have to put off shipping (DUH) animals in the heat, I am also worried about the eggs that are due to pip in the next few days.

But, so far so good. And the max that the incubator hit was 93. This is not great, but its not horrible. Let me also preface this by saying this was the temperature IN the incubator, not in the boxes themselves. Pippers are still pipping and alive. All signs point to okay.

So lets hope today stays a bit cooler.

Anyway, on to happier subjects, while the air is on and it is cooling down...

Here is the Super Pewter.

She has not shed yet, but she is doing very well.

I took a picture with her half sister, one of the Silver Bullets I hatched out. Once the Super Pewter sheds out, we will get a better idea of the final coloration, but look at the SILVER on the Super Pewter, my friends.

Whew!

Looking forward to seeing her colors after her shed.

I'll be doing this photo shoot again when that happens.

I have a lot to share once things shed... I'm getting impatient for new skin.

COME ON, Ecdysis. You can do it...

Have a fantastic day, my friends.

Crystals and Super Pewters!!! ACK!

OH MAN, this weekend has been a hatching crazy bonanza, my friends.

Let me share with you my excitement.

This clutch hatched out on Saturday...

Sterling to Pewter:

I got my Super Pewter! But she is a gal... No big deal! :)

So ended up being:

1.0 Pastel
0.1 Super Pastel
1.2 Pewters
1.0 Sterling
0.1 Super Pewter

SUPER PEWTER!!!!  (With the Sterling) Boo boo photo though..

SQUEEEEEE!!!

And... to top it all off, the Pastel Super Mojave to Special clutch hatched out completely on Sunday.

Ended up with:

2.2 Crystals
0.1 Pastel Crystal
0.1 Pastel Mojave

I'm calling the Pastel Crystal and Crystals based on the head coloration. I'm waiting for them to shed to be 100% sure, but that is what I see right now.

What do you guys think?

Sorry for the ugly pictures. I'm going to have to get some better photos soon..

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I'm not sure what to do with all of this, but I am very excited for the opportunity!

I'm going to go think about things for a while...

WOOOOHOOOOO!!

Have a fantastic week, my friends!

WOOHOO! Clutch 32

Almost there!!

Here is one of the bigger clutches of my year, finally on the ground.

Pewter female on eggs, baaaayyybbbbbyyyyyy!!!

This is Clutch 32, and one of my most exciting, especially since one of my other most exciting clutches, the Pastel Lesser to Spider clutch is going bad...

BOOO....

BUT YAY FOR SUPER PEWTERS! (I hope)

So here it is, and I am very excited to see them!

I hope they go better for me than the Pastel Lesser Spider clutch.

And the Mystery Clutch came out, with some odd results. Apparently the Lemonblast was the father, but NONE of the babies are Pastel at all... It's really odd, but hey, at least I got a pair of Pinstripes.

3.3 odds, so even thru out. 2.2 Normals, 1.1 Pinstripes.
Could have been better, but could have been worse.

I'll take it.

Have a fantastic day, my friends.

Passion for Pewters and Weekend Update

This blog is for my friend Pat. He asked me about my Pewters and wanted to see some good examples of some.

Well, I can help you with that, but some of the gals were not participating as well as I would have liked.

This is my favorite Pewter I hatched out last year.

She has crazy high sides, and is just faded out with blushing. I was really glad to see her hatch out, and even gladder to see her grow up so well.

Unfortunately, this is her sister, who was in shed last night. I tried to get her to at least show off her pattern. Both these gals are Cinny Pewters, which means a Pastel and a Cinnamon combination.

And this is the other twos half sister from another clutch. She is going into blue, but had some of the color (albeit dulled out) to show for it. She is also a Cinnamon Pewter.

And this big gal is my adult pewter. Apparently, I only have Cinnamon Pewters, although I'm working on changing that this year. This female was paired up with my Sterling in the hopes of Super Pewters. Shes building slowly, so hopefully I'll see an Ovulation really soon.

So there you go, my friend Pat. I hope that helps you in your quest for awesome Pewters. I think mine are pretty nice.

What do you think?

Anyway, on to the weekend updates. I PLUGGED IN THE INCUBATOR. It's empty, as you can well see, but its on and running and hopefully will have something in it in a week or two.

Had some company over and had a great time, and also had a few adventures of non-snakey nature.

Kona got spayed this weekend, and here she is looking doleful yet comfortable in her cone of shame.

Joel was upset that I took a picture of her when she was suffering, but how cute is she, right? And she was hopped up on pain meds anyway. She probably doesn't even remember my taking this picture.

Poor dawg. But she's much better and much more active now.

And then, on Sunday, we had a visitor of another kind.

Apparently this little guy was looking for food. He found some, and happily munched away at some dog food while Regal and Kona were stuck inside, watching it.

It is really cute... Joel wouldn't let me keep it.

Oh well.

Anyway, that is all for now, this has been a long blog considering.

Have a fantastic week, my friends. Happy Monday!

Things that I am working on

Like all humans, there are things I am working on.

Things in my life, things at my job, things that I would like to make better...

But on top of all of that is what I am working on with my snakes. They are a great and important part of what I do day to day, so therefore, we will focus on them.

With all the breedings I am doing, these are a few of the babies I'm trying to produce.

This is not quite what I'm working on, but imagine them melded together to form the Pastel Pied... My Pastel het Pied male is dutifully doing his job to help me achieve my goal of getting some Pastel Pieds this year.



The Pastel Lesser is working his magic as well, and I expect to have Super Pastel Lessers, Pastel Lesser Spiders, Pastel Lessers and more. I'm debating about throwing him in with a Mojave, but we'll see what happens.



This is also one of those things that you need to imagine. Imagine the two Pewters melded together. I am really hoping for a Super Pewter this year. Maybe a few, but I'm trying not to be greedy.



There are a few other projects I'm hoping for, but I didn't take combo pictures. Maybe I'll do a few more for next week, eh?

I hope you enjoy your days, and work on your own things as well.

Have a fantastic weekend, my friends.