I wanted to add to this thread the other day but haven't been able to get to my computer til now. I'm sure some/most will not agree with my opinion.

I have to side with the ball python argument. They are not going away for a LONG time. We all said the ball market was crashing 5 years ago, yet more and more people are buying them up and selling everything else in their collections. Yes there are those that are selling their ball collections as well, but in my opinion that is due to poor planning.

I bred balls back in the early 90s when normals were $100 each for captive bred.....imports were still $8-10. I got back into them around 2003 with a pair of het Pieds I paid $4k for. That was a great deal for them at the time. Well their first year of production was in 2005 and my female laid 9 eggs......4 Pieds in the clutch. I held back 1.1 and sold the other two for $4K each. That is already a $12k gain. The next season she laid 8 more eggs and guess what.....4 more Pieds. I think they were down to $3500 then and I sold two and traded two for an unusual Pewter female.

Jump forward 2 years and my Pewter is up to size. I decided to go with Pewter for a project/goal.....Pewter Pied.
Female and first in the world.

Male from a second clutch....breeding now.


I have held back many offspring from this project and have very little investment other than time and food. I have not purchased a ball python out of pocket since my original het pieds, yet I have lots of pied, pastel het pieds, pewter het pieds, pewter pieds, super pewter pos het pieds.....see my point?

The key to the ball game is to either invest large or produce something new. I'm working on proving out my "urban camo" male to two different girls this season. We hatched out a second one this year and hope to see positive results when breeding the 2010 male back to his mom and some het pied girls. If he proves out it will be the third time we have produced a new morph.

There is a reason you seen a ton of balls at the shows.....they are selling and gaining popularity every day. Here are a few more I've produced over the last few years....

"Urban Camo" Super Pewter pos. het Pied.


Pewter het Pied


Super Pastel pos. het Pied
When Supers were selling for $500 this one sold for double.


The two "urban camos" together.


Some ODD Sterlings pos. het Pied.


Striped? Super Pewter


And just to keep the thread kingsnake worthy one of my kings....


Keep what makes you happy and you'll have no problems.
-----
Brandon Osborne Reptiles

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