Best Startup Strategy...

[SoCaliSon]

Hey All!

I have been toying with the idea of getting into breeding leos as I am very fascinated by all the genetic possiblities involved. This weekend I am planning on starting to build a nice rack to keep a group.

At this point I want to start thinking about what kind of group I will start with. I am hoping to find some start off breeders that are fairly inexpensive, but that have the potential to produce some nice gentic lines in a couple generations. How would you guys recommend investing to get this going? I am not so interested in buyng $300 morphs to breed off the bat... but instead breeding my way into these morphs. Any tips, and advice from your experience would be appreciated. I breed Chameleons but their genetics are not nearly as diverse as you find in these little guys.

I also appreciate any good reading you could reccomend before getting my feet wet with this.

Thanks everyone in advance!

~Joe

 

[paintedlizards]

Joe

The market always seems ready for more nice tangerines- That is what we started out with and while the creation of some of the other more 'exotic' morphs will take you a few generations we are excited to produce our first this season after a few seasons of breeding with some success.

My vote would be to check out the classifieds or Kingsnake for some of the 'trios' or even the pairs and get your feet wet with a smaller number. I'd think that you would want to start with a smaller group or pairing if you plan on breeding into the neater morphs... remember every breeding can result in 30+ geckos and if you plan on selectively breeding those a few generations thats ALOT of 'throw back' geckos unless you are sure you can keep/rehome all the ones that do not enhance your program.

 

[SoCaliSon]

Great! Thank You so much for your response. I like the idea of a Trio. That sounds like great advice. I am going to build a rack capable of housing the original group, along with enough space for any potnetial offspring. I have an uderstanding about planning for the expenses involved in doing this... And I actually already have established breeding colonies of crickets, roaches, superworms, and silkworms that I use to sustain my Chameleon Collection.
I have freinds who deal at trade shows so if I was needing to unload offspring I do not imagine having a problem find good homes.

Thanks again for your response... I look forward to starting up on this.

If anyone else has any input it would be appreciated as well.

~Joe

 

[paintedlizards]

you will find that three quickly turns into a much larger number! and not always through breeding!

We're up to INSANE amounts of geckos! all because i wanted to get just one after taking a break!

good luck to you!

 

[ImBooBy]

You ll find that there isnt really one morph out there that are costly except a new morph that has come out like when enigmas first came out or extreme tangs that hold their prices real well. A good project is to combine multiple morphs. I bought a 1.3 set last year that could produce some MSSBB. Pair of Mack Bliz het trem, female macktremper het bliz and female Macksuper het blazingblizzard. Also working with some enigma combos so that shows you how much potential of morph mixing there are. But yeah kingnsnake has some nice combos for sale but you can check out reptile shows for much better prices.