Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I will be attending my first show soon to purchase my first Ball Python morph to get into breeding. I already have a normal male who shows some "markers" for morphs, so I am curious to see what might be there.

I was interesting in seeing what everyone thought I should get. This would by no means decide for me, simply for interest's sake.

I want a young female. I have a budget of $600. Say I have the ability to purchase any of the morphs on the market within my price range. What would you recommend?
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1.0 normal ball python
0.1 greyband hybrid kingsnake
0.2 crazy cats
1.0 husband

For $600, I would buy the biggest best eating female Lesser or Butter I could find. Lessers/Butters make amazing combos. Breed them to each other and get a Blue Eye Lucy. Two totally different looking snakes from one morph. Good Luck and have fun!!

Bill J.

Whatever you do, I'd try to squeeze a pastel in the deal! They're the common denominator for a lot of combos!

I'd personally go with a Lesser female. But for that price, you could also get a pair of Het Pieds or Het Clowns. But the choice is yours. Most Co-Dom single morph females are in that price range.

I say go with what attracts you the most in your price range. Don't just buy a morph strictly to breed it to make money.

Though buying several normal females and a male spider, pastel, or mojave (or as many as them as you can) would be a good start...From your first batch of offspring...keep a female to breed back to your normal male..as a way to increase the gene pool.

Unfortunately I really don't know the prices of morphs in the US compared to what they are here without researching...not sure how much baby lesser platinums go, or ghosts, etc... Pastel males are probably $200 or less in the US..same with spiders and mojaves...female babies, if you go for say, the captive hatched..you could get quite a few. Then you can breed them all to the co-dom and dom males (either one or two females per male, or just breed all the females with all the males, thus getting mixed parentage in the clutch).

Check the classifieds here at kingsnake and various big ball python breeders..see how much typical specimens of each morph costs, then look at what combination they can go into...decide what sort of end result you want to work with, or what morphs specifically you want to work with.
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PHLdyPayne