Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. My name is Brandon. I am 8 and live in Texas. I have 3 Ball pythons, 2 girls and 1 boy. I tried to get them to have babys last year, but they didn't. One of the girls had 5 eggs this year and they hatched yesterday. I am very very very excited.

They were all green gold and black. I wanted to have a pied or a albino. Now I cant wait to try again next year.

Here is my question. How do I have a albino or pied? I wanted to buy one but I dont have that much money saved from mowing yet. I want to have babys that are pied or albino so I dont have to buy one. Does anyone know how I can do this for not much money? I have $84 in my spend envelop, $25 in my save, and $40 in my give envelop. I can't spend the $40 though it is for church.

Please tell me how to make albino or pied babys for next year. Thank You. Brandon

This is my dads email. kennytrotter@yahoo.com

well to be honest with you, the cheapest way to "make" them would be to buy a pair of hets, but if you want them next year, you'll need adults, maybe you cna ask your parents to help you with the rest of the cost, because adults are kind of expensive, most of the time with the adult hets you will spend less money buying the pied or albino baby. unless you find someone with some adult hets that are really really generous, you will probably have to save for a while longer. but keep your hopes up and keep checking the classifieds, you might get lucky.

I admire you for your discipline with money. I also admire you for not spending the church money on snakes and doing what is irght with it. I love to see young kids having fun at this hobby.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

1.0 albino
1.2 het albino
1.0 het caramel
1.0 het pied
0.1 poss het. pied
0.4 normals (beautiful pastel sibs)

Brandon, congrats on the first babies. In order to get albinos or pieds in the cheapest way, you'll need to buy a pair of normal looking ball pythons that carry the genetics for either of those 2 morphs -- they are called "hets". You will need two 100% hets to have a chance at hatching an albino or pied. There are also 50% and 66% percent hets, but they are only possibly carrying the gene and there is no guarantee -- so I personally wouldn't take the risk, especially when you have to work so hard and save so long for your money. You can get baby 100% het albinos for about $300 to $500 per pair, and baby 100% het pieds for about $800-$1,000 per pair. Yes, they're still expensive. But you won't be able to breed them for 2-3 more years as they will have to grow up first. If you want albinos or pieds next year, you will have to buy hets that are already adults and ready to breed. The problem with that though, is that they are even more expensive. An adult female het albino generally costs $1,000 to $1,500 -- so you're almost better off just buying a baby albino since they're about $800-$900 right now. An adult female het pied costs even more -- $1,500 to $2,500. Still cheaper than a visual pied, but still expensive for someone your age.

Keep working hard and keep saving, you'll eventually get there. It took all of us many years to get the morphs we have, and you'll get there too if you stay dedicated. Good luck!
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~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

Hi Brandon,

Congrats on your first babies! You must be so excited. It sounds like you've done a great job at saving up your money, too.

Everyone who's posted so far is right, hets are going to be the cheapest way for you to get your pied or albino. If you're up for a longer term project, you could buy a het male to breed to your normal females and make your own possible hets. Say you bought a 100% het albino male and bred him to your normal females. All of the babies would have a 50% chance of being het for albino. The only way to tell which ones are actually het for albino is by breeding them. You could keep the girls, raise them to breeding size, and breed them back to the 100% het male. This should give you albinos. It would take you a few years, but it would be a pretty affordable and fun way to produce them. My brother and I are doing the same thing with pieds. Personally I think it's more fun than just buying one. If you wanted to try it, I bet you could find a male het albino for under $100, especially if you find a breeder in your area so you don't have to pay shipping.

If you need more help with learning how the genetics work, I'd be happy to help. You can always email us, too. My brother's name is Nathan, and he's 12. I'm sure he would love to have a friend who's interested in snakes to talk to. Our email is wetterstroem@earthlink.net.

Hope this helps,
Shelly

Thanks everyone for the help. I think I will try to find a cheap male 100% het pied for now. It is the best thing I can afford. If anyone has one or sees one for cheap let me know at my dads email kennytrotter@yahoo.com

I live in Amarillo TX with my dad, but my mom lives in Lubbock, so if there is a bredder around these towns I would like to know, so we dont have to mail the snake.

I try to get my dad to loan me money for one but he says be patient work hard and save my money like he did. He keeps and breeds hognose snakes that he caught when he was a kid a long time ago. He has a bunch.