Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How do I make a morph? I have an Albino Burmese and I'd like to breed him to make something really rare and special. Can anyone give me some advice as to what I can buy to make something like that? I dont have a ton of money so I'd like to stay pretty cheap with whatever I get. Thanks!
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George
1.0.0. Albino Burmese Python (Tyranus)
1.0.0. Columbian Red Tail Boa (Madmartigan)

You don't really "make" morphs. Really all you can do is combine already known morphs into new combinations. It's all based upon the genetics.
Since the albino morph is based upon a recessive mutation, you have to have both a male and a female snake who carry the gene to have a chance to produce offspring with that particular morph.
Assuming your snake is only albino, and doesn't carry the genes for anything else (in breeder lingo, isn't "het" for anything else). You can only produce other albino snakes. To do this you have to have a female that is either albino (carries two copies of the albino gene) or het for albino (carries one copy).
Basically if you have a male and a female who both have at least one copy of a particular gene, you have a chance to produce that morph in the offspring. It takes a lot of work to produce combinations of morphs because you have to go through several generations to get breeders that have the right combination of genes.
As far as new morphs, you don't make those...unless you feel like dumping your snake in some toxic waste and seeing what mutations you introduce to its DNA. Basically the big time breeders just spend a lot of time looking at wild-caught snakes for weird mutations that happen normally and then breed these snakes to establish a new "morph". Hope this helps and sorry for the long post.
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1.1 Red Bloods (Cartman and Bebe)
0.1 Boa Constrictor (Victoria)
0.1 Albino Burm (Butters)
0.0.1 Desert King (Miles)

Thank you so much for your response and don't worry about it being long. It was very informative!

So what would happen if I bought an Albino Female to breed with my male? The babies would just be plain Albino?

If I want something rare and special, should I even bother with my male or am I going to have to start fresh and buy 2, more exotic snakes?

Look at this guy! He needs a girl!

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George
1.0.0. Albino Burmese Python (Tyranus)
1.0.0. Columbian Red Tail Boa (Madmartigan)

Yes, based on the genetics, if you bred your male to an albino female, you would get all albino babies. If you bred your male to a female who was het for albino (looked normal by carried one copy of the albino gene) you would get half babies that were albino and half that were normal (by odds, not exact numbers). If you wanted to make some neat combo morphs (more than one gene) you could do that, but it would take a while since it would involve going through a couple generations of snakes. For example, there's no way of getting any visual morphs out of your male other than albino since he doesn't carry any other mutations. However if you bought a female who had a completely different mutation (one of my favorites is granite) you would have baby snakes that all looked completely normal (neither albino nor granite) but who were het for both the granite and albino genes. If you then bred two of those snakes together (or better yet traded with someone for an equivalent snake from different parents to limit inbreeding) you could produce a clutch of snakes that had normal looking snakes, albino snakes, granite snakes and albino granite snakes. Basically find a morph, or combination of morphs that you really like by looking at pictures and post here, somebody will tell you how to get there. Best of luck with your male, I have a female that looks a lot like him who would love to be his girlfriend.
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1.1 Red Bloods (Cartman and Bebe)
0.1 Boa Constrictor (Victoria)
0.1 Albino Burm (Butters)
0.0.1 Desert King (Miles)

Ok. That makes sense. Thanks so much for all of that info. It's a lot of info but it all makes sense so it'll just be a matter of time before it all sinks in. I will take your advice and find a picture(s) of something I would like to get and hopefully someone will be able to direct me down a path to it. Thanks again!
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George
1.0.0. Albino Burmese Python (Tyranus)
1.0.0. Columbian Red Tail Boa (Madmartigan)