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Thinking of breeding corns

O

onna

New member
My husband and I are interested in breeding some corns but not entirely sure what color morphs to breed for. I'm wondering what color morph would be a good for starting out with. Any helpful ideas or suggestions are appreciated.


Onna
 
I think it depends what morphs sell in your area. Corn sales have been very slow the last year to eighteen months so you need to figure out what will shift where you are, so you aren't left with a lot of additional mouse-eating houseguests!
 
IMO, breed what *you* like. Also be aware of what is desired,, like Bitsy said.
I personallly like the "classics" the best...the wild type, locality morphs; Miami's, Alabama's, Okeetee's etc.
Just keep in mind, you could get stuck with extra babies that don't sell. I know a local breeder who still has babies from '09, so he didn't breed this year.
 
I know what he was "thinking" of trying to breed but not entirely sure it would work out. He's wanting to do an Okeetee x Miami and breed for a larger black band around the orange on the back but still keeping the Miami looks. I'm not sure how the resulting babies would turn out with trying for that as I haven't been able to find pictures of offspring of that cross.

I believe the only place locally that sells the Okeetee's is in Nashville. Aside from that the only other places that sell corns is the 2 big chain stores. One is a good place to get info on snakes the other.....they need a lot of help in that department.
 
That's going to be a very difficult project. Carol Huddleston is working on some wide-bordered Miamis. They are gorgeous. It will take you many generations to see results, though.
 
Nanci said:
That's going to be a very difficult project. Carol Huddleston is working on some wide-bordered Miamis. They are gorgeous. It will take you many generations to see results, though.
Click to expand...

Yeah I just found a post on her snakes but I haven't been able to find any pictures of those Miamis. Not going to get any of this started up yet but later on I do plan on getting certified to ship snakes.
 
Breeding an okeetee to a miami would get you pretty far from the miami look for a fair while. A better way to go about that is line breeding by finding a pair of miamis with the thickest borders you can find (Carol has fabulous ones) and breed them, then keep the babies with the thickest borders, breed those together or back to the parents, and keep going like that.
 
I have thick bordered Alabama locale snakes that I have been thinking I would try to breed with Miami's to try to get the thick borders.
I agree that Okeetee with Miami probably won't get the look you want.
 
onna said:
Yeah I just found a post on her snakes but I haven't been able to find any pictures of those Miamis. Not going to get any of this started up yet but later on I do plan on getting certified to ship snakes.
Click to expand...

Try these links for photos of her wide-bordered Miamis w/ & w/o motley:

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78612&highlight=Miami+Okeetee

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96516&highlight=Miami+Okeetee

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90960&highlight=Miami

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77129&highlight=Miami
 
Pets plus in Oak Ridge Tn is fantastic.
They are really knowledgeable there and can special order you anything you want......down to hets and sex of the snake.

From what I understand though, to sell corns in out state, you have to have a $250.00 license.
Depending on your morphs you are working with, it could be worth it.
There have been several threads on here about the market being floded...so if you want to do this, make sure that you aren't looking for a profit...but just rather as a hobby.
 
Playing with selectively-bred Normals (which is what Miamis and Okeetees are), you do run the risk of generating a lot of rather ordinary-looking Normals, possibly for two or even three generations (that's about six to nine years) before you get the look you want.

And then you'll have to compete with Carole, who already has an established reputation and has been breeding them for a few years.

I think finding a marketing strategy for Normals would be my first concern. Especially in a market where even some particularly pretty morphs aren't really selling (although hopefully things will be picking up sometime in the next decade!)
 
Yeah, we're still thinking on doing this. I've been trying to talk him into breeding Ball Pythons but he hates how picky an eater they can be. lol He's still trying to figure out what he wants to do.

I'd love to check out the Pets Plus place but that's a good 4-5hr drive. The last place we checked out was a small store in Shelbyville, TN, had some nice looking boas and milk snakes but every thing had mites and no signs of a heat source. I know i walked out feeling like something was crawling on me. From where I live its a good 90 min drive to Nashville or Memphis and that's just to hit city limits.
 
Breeding corns is fun but you have received some good advice here, the market has really bottomed out. Many breeders are scaling back, and I am noticing the ones that haven't tried to reduce their output are really having to slash prices down to almost nothing to get them to sell. You can get some really good deals though so it is a good time to build a collection, I guess. My plans have scaled back so much... Ghosts are my favorite morph and I don't even have plans to produce any more for a while.
That being said, a small breeder with a good local connection (pet store that will take the babies or something of the sort) should do OK. If you can find an outlet for the baby corns then go for it, but "just sell them online" is really not that easy to do. I get rid of more normals at local shows and pet stores than online, pretty much an online snake usually has to be worth more than the cost of shipping - can run $65 and up for residential delivery with a signature, so to most people buying a $15 normal online isn't worth it.
 
Unless it has rockin hets and even then they want more than one and there aren't always more than one lol. Local sales are the bread and butter for small time hobbyists, so put out feelers. Talk to local shops, find a local herp group that meets and see what people are wanting. I know lately I have heard a lot of people near me talking about Fires and Butter stripes. I have the genes for butter stripes, but they won't be ready to breed until 2012. No rush though. I just wish my Diffused had not got loose. That's ok, start with one and save money from any sales to get stock for the other line that is my plan :)
 
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