DID THE FRACTALUS LINE SET A NEW STANDARD FOR BREEDING?For a long time i looked at pics of wc retics in indo and the philippines with their crazy colors and patterns. I hoped someday id be able to produce stuff like i was seeing in those pics. There was one snake in particular that i considered to be one of the best looking retics every found. It was this sanana island.    It doesnt have the best colors but its pattern is somehow sharp, aberrant, and consistent. All at the same time. My goal was to use the localities i have to eventually make retics like that. It took a few tries with different wc ternate pairings but i was able to do it. After that i wanted to take it further. I wanted see what all i could do to pattern. So i started the apokalupto line which is three wc bloodlines. After seeing apokaluptos, i wanted to really focus on pattern structure more than anything. I used two of the three bloodlines of apokalupto. I already had a 1.1 of those bloodlines so i did some line breeding and created fractalus.  This is what i wanted. Patterns so crazy they look better then all the morphs. Once you understand variation of pattern and color you see in morphs isnt coming from the morphs themselves, but is the results of the morphs effect combined with the traits that create the phenotype look, the need for polygenic selective breeding is clear. You cant use a morph to make itself look better. This is the mantra of selective breeding. Any improvements made in morphs are results from the morph interacting positively with different gene that control color and pattern. The philippine localities are by far the most impressive. The retics from luzon are probably the best looking retics in the world. Another goal of mine is to try and mix the localities and traits i have to make retics like luzons.      Believe it or not. I have clutches in the incubator that will produce retics that look like those luzons.
A great looking wild type will always beat a morph. A great looking wild type will always improve the look of a morph. What does all this mean? Well for one thing selective breeding has caused my ternates to go up in value in the 7 years of producing them. That was with no hype, expensive marketing, or having to lie about how small they stay. There has been no ROR style marketing of ternates, halmaheras, or mindanaos. They have all proven themselves to have an inherent value outside of their rarity. Which is their ability to manipulate morphs in a way other localities cant, and their reproducible traits both within pure and morph breedings. This means morphs are no longer the only way to manipulate colors and patterns. We now have a way to manipulate morphs with traits that control color and pattern. Fractalus line has unequivocally proven the following. Pattern structure, back diamond shape, back diamond count, side pattern, rosette count, pattern color outlining, side banding, and color spectrum, are all now reproducible options for selective breeding. They are as much apart of retic breeding as morphs are. They are significantly more important than morphs for selective breeding, increasing aesthetic value, and stabilizing prices. This will change the way retic pricing works. Pricing will have to be more on an individual basis for each animal. not
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RETICULATED PYTHONS FOR SALEWHAT TO LOOK FOR.WHAT SIZE TO EXPECT.WHAT THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT WILL BE. What to look for when buying a retic. First look at the prices. Compare prices from different breeders. If you are noticing a significant increase on price with a certain breeder, then ask yourself why. This is where new buyers get fucked. They are new to the industry and usually get fooled into thinking the biggest name has the best stuff. A lot of the time the biggest name isnt producing what they are selling or are producing average stuff. So if the price is higher and the retic doesn't look any better then the cheaper one, you might want to go with the cheaper one. There are exceptions to that rule but for the most part when you see a breeder charging 50% more than everyone else, its because that breeder expects people to pay more for a name. Thats not a very good investment. Paying more then you should just means we are going to laugh at you and some breeders will try to exploit you, when they see you over paying. Simply put. Over paying tends to lead to more over paying. Personally i dont know how some breeders sleep at night knowing they sold new keepers a pipe dream for $14,000.  SOME RED FLAGS TO LOOK FORIf a breeder starts telling you the following its a safe bet they are full of shit Their bloodlines are smaller or bigger than anyone else's. Simply ask for the data and it will end it real quick. Tells you how much money you will make from the snakes they are selling. Starts telling you stories about how everyone else's shit is fake and garbage. The only time this isn't a red flag is when its me doing it on facebook fucking with Shane or something like that. If a breeder cant convince you their animals are top quality without trying to convince you everyone else's are shit, then their animals are probably not all that special. And are definitely over priced.  THE TRUTH ABOUT RETIC SIZEThe dumbest thing to come out of the super dwarf craze is the claims of size expectations. FACT NUMBER ONE. There's really not that much difference in adult size between male and female retics. If they are fed the same they will get basically the same size with a slight edge to the female to be a little bigger. The reason female are so much bigger than males is because we feed the females ten times the amount of food. As soon as a male can breed most breeders slow down considerably on the amount of food they give them. FACT NUMBER TWO. There is no such thing as a full grown 6ft mainland male. Its only 6ft because that's all the more it was fed. Thats why it makes no difference when breeding a mainland male to a super dwarf female or a super dwarf male to a mainland female. Theres no evidence that retic growth is sex linked to the female. So don't let any scrumbag used car salesmen tell you otherwise. That was made up to keep people from producing a lot of super morph crosses and add value to animals that were produced a certain way. Its a total scam. If a breeder ever tries to tell you that nonsense, you just have to ask them for their data that proves it. FACT NUMBER THREE. Retic potential size is determined by polygenic traits. We also don't know what epigenetic factors can cause their indeterminant growth to create very large or small retics. Most likely, its food. But to what extent we don't know. So breeders can only give you a rough estimation on adult size. Its not as simple as genetics or more food means a bigger snake. Could more food at a young at trigger more growth hormone and that causes some retics to get very larger? That's a very real possibility Theres a lot of other stuff that could be talked about but for sake of the buyers expectation, i recommend this. Don't think your retic is going to only get the size of a bull snake, especially if you feed it. The greatest influence on size seems to be the averages seen in different localities. Retics come in three different sizes LARGE 12ft to 20ft plus. MEDIUM 8ft to 14ft SMALL 6ft to 10ft Very few super dwarfs will stay under 7ft. In 20 years iv only seen one stay that small, that was fed properly.  RETURN ON INVESTMENTHeres the part where i explain how rich you're going to get breeding retics. Theres basically four types of people that buy retics. This pretty much go's for the buying reptiles in general. NUMBER ONE. The pet owner. The mass majority of people buying retics just want them as a pet with little to no intention of breeding them. They simply want a retic for the enjoyment of owning a retic. Number two. New breeders. New breeders make up the second largest group of buyers. This is the group of buyers that really keeps the market moving forwards towards making better looking stuff. If there's nothing new coming out there really isn't any reason for new breeders to invest in retics. Its the new stuff and the possibilities of even better stuff to be produced that drives this part of the retic market. Number three. The breeders. The established breeders do a lot to keep the market going. We produce the animals for everyone to buy. We push forward with new ideas and new bloodlines. Sometimes. Number four. The rich and bored. This buyer is the rarest and its unlikely that you will ever land one of these. Unless you happen to be the biggest name at the time or have the newest thing at the time. The rich and bored buyer is a very wealthy person that decided they want to spend a bunch of money on retics. They don't really have a plan or understanding of what they are even buying. For the rich and bored its more about the excitement of the purchase, They are happy to spend more money then they should on projects that couldn't possibly yield a profit. Years ago they would have been buying from people like Bob or jay and even Kevin. Today you will see them going with ROR or maybe a and b exotics for some ocelots stuff. These are the people that will actually spend $30,000 on a retic that they could produce for $5,000. If the rumors are true some of these buyers actually spent around $15,000 for pairs of dh albino pieds from ROR. Lets breakdown their potential return. Well they could have bought an albino pied for next to nothing and got a pure super dwarf for under $2,500. So for $3,000 they could have made an entire clutch. But opted to spend $15,000, because they can. These buyers will never make any money in retics. The return on investment for the rich and bored buyers is always a loss. Chances are they will get bored and dump their collection when they find a new hobby to wash money on. If you are lucky enough to land one of these buyers enjoy it while it last. But chances are you wont. Especially if you're focused on producing high quality retics at decent prices. The rich bored buyer doesn't really understand value or potential. If they did they wouldn't be doing dumb shit like spending tens of thousands on one or two retics. If they were serious about it they would be piecing together a retic collection that has sustainability and high aesthetic value. Not buying over priced retics that will lose 75% of their value in a year or two. Since the pet keep isn't looking to make any money it doesn't matter that they wont. The new breeder is where the issue really lies. Its the new breeder that needs the most foresight, to make money. The old breeders are established and don't need to try as hard to sell their animals. The new breeders on the other hand have to put in a lot more work to move animals.  BLUEPRINT FOR NEW BREEDERSAs long as you follow these steps you should be profitable in you retic production. Step one. Don't act like me. I get away with acting like a jerkoff for the following reasons. 1. I've been around a long time and everyone is used to me acting like a jerkoff. 2. I have a 100% accuracy rate when it comes to calling people out on their bullshit. 3. I literally know more about retics then all the other breeders. Ask any of them and they will tell you that. 4. I know more about localities then any other breeder and have established line of kalaotoa, madu, halmahera, mindanao, ternate, and hopefully soon sulawesi. 5. I'm the best breeder at pattern and color manipulation. Which most breeders haven't even realized how important that skill is going to be in the future without any new imports coming in. As a new breeder there's no way you have my resume. In the retic world, criticism of breeders shitty behavior is considered ; starting drama ; If you dont have the same skill set and want people to actually like you, i highly recommend you don't act like me. Step 2. Understand you customer base. As a new breeder most of your customers will be other new breeders and people looking for pets. So you want to produce accordingly. As a new breeder there wont be a lot of old breeders looking to buy from you. Same go's with the rich and bored customer. They will be seeking out the biggest name with the more over priced new thing. You're not a big name and chances are you wont have the newest overpriced thing. So dont waste your time producing retics that you want to try to sell for $10,000 each. $350 to $1,500 is where you want 75% of your production. The last 25% can be in that $1,500 to $5,000 range. Step 3. Set up your social media, start a youtube, and get a website. This website is drag and drop. Its super easy to use and only cost around $30 a month for everything. Including being able to sell on the website directly to customers. Most people only set up a facebook business page. That page will get taken down sooner or later by facebook and you will lose everything on it. Guess how i know that. Also, buy a camera that also does video. That way you can make content of your animals for your youtube and other social media. Cell phone pics and videos are ok but you can make a looking video of your animals with a camera. People think phones are taking just as good pics and videos as mirrorless cameras. They're not at all. You can put that ternate suntiger video on a 75in flatscreen and it will look amazing. Not so much with a video from a phone.
Most people get a business name and go right to getting stickers and tshirts. I don't recommend you do that. I recommend you invest in a camera and your social media to get you name out there. A lot more people are going to see your social media than some asshole wearing one of your tshirts. You'll end up spending $2500 on shirts and stickers that have a very limited advertisement range. When you could spend $5000 and get a camera and lens with some lights, set up a website, and get a decent creators pc or laptop. If you have any question about camera shit, you can hit me up. Ill help you find some good deals. Step 4. Figure out what you want to work. Figure out how many you can mange and keep properly. Figure out what your want to make a year. As long as you have realistic expectations you should be successful. IF you want to make $50,000 a year. Thats 50 retics selling at $1000 each. Thats just over 4 a month you have to sell. You only have to sell 20 retics at $2500 each to make $50000 a year. You got to sell 100 at $500 each to make $50000 a year. That just over 8 a month. It doable but a lot of people want to make $250,000 a year selling retics and thats where they run into problems. Take all those number and times them by five and thats what you have to produce and sell. Best morphs that sell and work well with other morphs. Tiger, anthrax, marble, sunfire, platty, purple, indo caramel, mocha. Those morphs will always sell. I recommend you only pick one line of albino to work with and 4 to 6 base morphs. Preferably ones that go together well. Get your base morphs together. You can add more later. Get your sds and other localities and you are ready to go. You have to get some pure sds. and at least one other locality for polygenic traits to make everyone look better. I dont recommend jamp or kayuadi for color and pattern manipulation. They dont have enough of either to add anything. Other breeders will tell you they do but those breeders are fucktards so dont listen to them. Any of the other medium size localities will be fine. It just depends on the looks you're going for. Im sure theres a bunch of typos and shit. I dont feel like fixing them. I hope this is helpful. Remember the old breeders dont want to change. They dont want to adapt to the changing market. New breeders can capitalize on that. Start making better looking stuff then the old breeders. Im telling you how to do it for free. ALL PATTERN TYPES ARE JUST VARIATIONS OF A PHENOTYPIC PARADIGM. Thinking pattern types are random or guaranteed will do nothing more than set you back in your understanding of morphs and pattern manipulation. Whether its the quintessential pattern so recognizable as on this sumatran.  Or the amazing chaos of these philippine.  Its the same thing, just expressed in different proportions of back pattern, side pattern and color spectrum. In my opinion the sumatran and philippines are perfect in their own way. It would be every hard to improve them. The polygenic traits lined up about as perfectly as they could to make completely different looking retics, that look amazing in their own way. The classic look of the sumatran and the aberrant look of the philippines created by different traits. One created symmetry with low side banding and low outlining. The other created asymmetrical back pattern with high outlining and more side banding. The a variation of the same structure can be seen here in this kayuadi with its back diamonds that sits up high on the back but spread out.  Verses this gebe island that has back diamonds that sit high on the back, but are offset and interlocking with thicker black  Rounded longer back diamonds with thin black on this bangka island  creates a look completely opposite to this sanana island, with its sharp offset high diamond count with thick black. and less outlining and side banding. As different as they are its still the same basic structure. This is the fundamentals of pattern manipulation. Once you can wrap your head around this you are on your way to making exponentially better looking retics. Lets ask a few question and then look at some examples Whats would a retic, with an interlocking back pattern, medium outlining and low side banding with an over all lighter color spectrum, look like. Think about it before you look at the pic and try to picture it in your head. Well a retic with those traits would look like this ambon island  If we keep the interlocking back pattern but add a lot of outlining and side banding with darker colors you get a retic like this halmahera island  Once you can start to visualize in your head what different kinds of pattern and colors there are, and how they manipulate the over all look of a retic, you can anticipate how the offspring of breedings will look before you make them. When you get to that point, you will also be able to avoid doing breedings that will produce stuff that looks like shit. Because you know what the outcome will be before you do it. Im sure youve seen me running my mouth about how a breeding im doing is going to create insane looking whatever. And im always right. If you ever wondered how i always manage to be right. Well the information in this blog is how. Im able to anticipate outcomes of breeding be understanding how different polygenic traits will effect each other and morphs. Thats how i knew i was going to make insane marbles, platinums, tigers, phantoms, and so on before i did it. Its how i know the philippine suntigers in my incubator right now are going to be amazing. Alot of people will say, of course they will look amazing. But can they explain how they are going to look? I can. Some will be striped out a little with a massive amount of side banding. Some will have more of a chaotic back pattern with sharp edges. The sunfire colors will be different of other sunfires. It will cause a lighter over all coloration. Some that have enough space in between the rosettes will have a lighter silver or white coming from the belly, than you normally see on suntigers. But only if the side banding is reduced enough to allow for it. Im hoping to get lucky on a couple and the phil back pattern pulls the rossettes up to the top and allows some space for some silver or white. its unlikely but possible. If that doesnt happen you will see a side pattern similar to my ternate suntigers with different colors. This is the difference between me and other breeders. I can explain how a philippine suntiger is going to look. Thats alot different than simply saying they will look nice. I got marbles in the incubator that should have aberrant back patterns with the widest color spectrum of any marbles ever produced. I will definitely have the wide color spectrum but i need some other genes to line up to get aberrant back pattern with the color. Learn to mix traits. Start looking at traits and asking what the results will be if they are combined. Will they enhance each other or will they cancel each other out. So whether you like a super clean look with that reddish color spectrum like this sula  Or the dark thick black aberrant pattern of this ternate  Maybe you prefer the classic yellow head look of this sumbawa  You're not going to be able to produce any of it by pissing in the wind and hoping for the best. I hope this helped in showing some of the variation of different phenotype expression of the wild type look of retics.
If you want to make better looking morphs you need to start studying the way normals look. PATTERN MANIPULATION MOVING FORWARD
For just about the entire history of the captive reproduction of reticulated pythons, like other species, namely ball pythons, the name of the game has been morphs. This has become an issue in retics since losing importation. The accidental pyramid scheme that it creates, always drives down prices at the same time keeps the market progressing constantly. The new morph and morph combos drives the market towards a new cycle of high prices. Followed by over production and lower prices. Just to have it all start over again. With breeders telling themselves. This time prices will hold. With no more new morphs coming in besides the ones that have apparently been here the whole time, there's a question that needs answered. That question is. How do with move forward in the captive reproduction of reticulated pythons in the US and not become stagnant and repetitive in our production? Unfortunately, stagnant and repetitive is already the reigning strategy for many breeders in there quest to make the retic with the least amount of color, pattern, and contrast. Its been nothing less than depressingly impressive the amount of different combinations of morph combos that yield the same results. WE CAN NO LONGER DEPEND ON MORPHS ALONE FOR COLOR, PATTERN, AND CONTRAST.The sooner you accept that as a breeder the sooner you start moving froward from the past of, worlds first. To understanding aesthetic value being the new driving force in the retic market. Along with size of course. Understanding morphs are enhanced by traits not traits are enhanced by morphsThe marble in that video is one of the nicest if not the nicest marbles ever produced. Most breeders will tell you that the marble gene is random or variable. The marble gene can only act within the constraints of the traits that determine the structure of the pattern. The randomness and variation that most breeders attribute to morphs has nothing to do with the morph itself. The variation is the result of the randomness of the alignment of traits that determine the phenotype expression, of that specific animal. Those are the parameters in which morphs operate. BACK PATTERN, SIDE PATTERN, AND COLOR SPECTRUM ARE THE THREE PARAMETERSPolygenic traits are the foundation of color and pattern manipulation. This reality is the key to making any morph look better. You cant make a brighter platinum or sunfire without adding brighter colors. You cant make a high contrast albino without side banding. You cant make a dark gc without adding darker colors.
Its really that simple. Yet very few breeders consider any of this and are relying on morphs to do all the work. Ill be adding blog post that break down all the different aspects of pattern and color. Ill also be explaining the different morphs and what polygenic traits will enhance them. |
RODNEY
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