Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I sometimes see 50% or 66% het BP's in the classifieds that are almost 2 years old. When they are already from 04 or 05, how do you know if they've already been bred to try to prove out the gene? Is there an "honor" system amoungst breeders? Why would someone keep a 50% or 66% het for two years and not try to prove it out? Anyone have any experience with this and actually had the snake prove out? Thanks.
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1.1 100% het albino W. Hognose
0.1 66% het albino "red" W. Hognose
1.0 Pastel Ball Python
1.0 Common Snapping Turtle
1.1 Bearded Dragon

This is what happened with me and is common with a lot of breeders.
We map out our breeding strategy, and things are allways changing.
We never seem to have enough females for the males in our collection.
I have five 50% het. genetic stripes from Bob Clark and three 50% het. caramel albinos, all ready to breed from a few years ago that I have never breed.
I have wanted to, but I had other males that were breeding well for me (pastel and het. pied) so I never got around to it.
I now would rather just sell them and buy a few het now, and could use the cage space for my growing collection.
At the time, I could't afford het's, so I opted for the 50% het. route, kowing that at least a few would be het's.
So ask for documentation, as most likley they have not proven out yet.
We would have to raise the babies and breed them back a few years in a row just to see if we hit on the odds.
Two years is not enough time for this.

It may not have been ready within the 2 yrs but they have already produced the morph with hets or boughten one and no longer need to keep the 50% hets. They also may have already bred it and it didn't prove out in that breeding but they should tell you if they bred it and it is still a possible if they only bred it to a het could have just been bad odds.
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Nita Hamilton
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Ball Pythons
ballpythonworld.com

Why would anyone breed a 50% het. male and breed it to a het or homo. female?
Two years, most likley just don't need it any more.
3-5 years... maybe it was proven/unproven....

I was assuming females, most people sell off their possible het males as normals. But if they have 2 or 3 yrs old possible het females that haven't made it up to size but they now can afford to buy an actual het female then why not sell off the now breeding size possible het? Personally I would still keep the possible if it is breeding size even if it is a normal still a breeding size female!
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Nita Hamilton
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Ball Pythons
ballpythonworld.com