Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I love my(and all) ball pythons and would like to get into breeding as a hobby. I have read from books and online about general breeding and genetics.
Where should I begin as far as finding a mate for my normal breeding age male.
I plan to attend a reptile conference this weekend in the hopes to find a good prospect.
I would like to find a starter mutant morph type female........

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

It really depends on how long you want to wait till you get a visual morph offspring. Only way to get a morph in your first litter is to purchase a dominant or co-dom morph female. If your money is limited as well, there are many co-dom morphs you can go with. Pastels, spiders, Mojaves are probably the three most common and females aren't too costly.

If you want to go for a long haul, then a 100% het of one of the many recessive morphs or buy a visible morph to breed to your normal (and produce all 100% hets which you can later sell or breed back to your visible morph female). Recessive morphs that don't cost alot would be Albino. Females tend to be more expensive but prices are going down for many. Pieds are still quite a bit depending on the white percentages.

It may be a good idea to buy a pair of 100% het snakes, even though you already have a normal male. Your male could be 'fresh blood' to breed to offspring of the het pair (have about a 25% chance per egg for the offspring to be of the visual morph. If female you could breed her to your normal male for 'fresh' 100% hets to sell, or breed back to the original 100% het pair)

Cheapest way would be to buy a pastel, spider or mojave female. Then use money made from selling the offspring to buy something else, or keep a male of that morph to breed to the female in a couple years and get 'supers' of that form. (though there doesn't appearn to be any super form of a Spider)
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PHLdyPayne

If you just want to try breeding, get a cheap normal female and go for it. But as far as buying a morph female and breeding your normal male to it is a waste of time and effort. Your normal male would drag down the female. Your males are supposed to be where you put your money.

Just trying to be realistic, Mike

since he is doing so as just a hobby it doesnt matter. having a morph female and normal male you are still able to pop out morph babies and for some1 who enjoys the HOBBY and isnt in it to make big bucks it doesnt matter and still brings a ton of joy watching babies be born wether they are normals or morphs.

im not trying to dog on you but there is WAY to many people who got into breeding especially balls and have flooded the market and are only in it for the sake of tryin to be th enext big breeding making a ton of money from these animals and in turn most animals are being pushed to 1000 grams in 2 years or less just so they can be bred sooner. heck i have heard ppl beeding males at only a few months of age and 300 grams and in my eyes thats just ridiculous

With the cost of rodents and supplies, it is easy to get the feeling that you are spending too much money. Or rather someone else tells you that you are spending too much money. If a well run hobby can pay for itself instead of costing, so much the better.

"heck i have heard ppl beeding males at only a few months of age and 300 grams and in my eyes thats just ridiculous"

I can understand the argument for not breeding small females, but I just don't see how allowing a young/small male to breed can possibly hurt him. Please explain your logic. Mike

why would you even wanna breed a male that is so young and small? your chances of a male producing viable sperm is alot better at a more mature age. why would you as you put it waste the breeding on a female by having a young immature male breed her with a lower chance of viable sperm? Personaly i would prefer to use a older male in better chance of more viable sperm so there is a increased chance that if the female takes she does not shoot out all slugs.

this is just my opinion and point of view. Sorry but i wouldnt want to chance breeding a male whom is 4 months of age and 300 grams just like i dont push females and stuff them with food so they can be bred at two years of age.

You still didn't explain how it could possibly hurt the male. Explain that.

If the male is special, (for whatever reason) you may want to try and breed him. The worst that can happen is you don't get eggs. I agree if I had an older male of the same morph it might produce better.

HOW COULD IT POSSIBLY HURT THE MALE.

im not even going to go any further on this post, i forgot i was in the ball forum where ego is everything

" heck i have heard ppl beeding males at only a few months of age and 300 grams and in my eyes thats just ridiculous"
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You made the claim, but can't think of a single reason to back it up.

"im not even going to go any further on this post, i forgot i was in the ball forum where ego is everything"

Did I hurt your ego by asking you to explain? If there is a reason I'm overlooking I'd like to hear it.

I don't understand why someone would make statements and not choose to rationalize them when called upon. Also I get very tired of hearing people whine and cry like little girls all the time about someone who takes the hobby into the next level or attempts to go to the next level. If you love something and are good enough to make a little money at it, why not? Ethics aside, the only reason I would choose not to breed a 300g male is that I would be scared that the female 1200g heavier could injure or kill it easily. I would not risk this even though it is not that likely to happen. People need to stop being haters, the hobby is big enough for everyone and more competition means better prices to everyone.
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absolutley no reason a male should not be bred. Females are a little more understandable. Producing and laying eggs takes a lot out of a female snake but there is absolutely no risk to the male. He either is producing sperm and is ready or he is not. I bred a 8 month old male that was barely 400 grams to two different females this year. Both females were well over 2,000 grams and this little guy fertilized 16 out of 17 eggs laid so I have no complaints. And to justify a little, even though I dont think I need to, he is a very special male. He is a black bee (black pastel, spider) 100% het ghost. Todd

You're one year ahead on your projects, I'm sure you feel lucky. Good for you. Thanks for speaking up. Mike

Hi,

I am just curious what you mean about pushing a snake to a certain weight. I am very new to the hobby, and yes it is a hobby for me whether all the people on here believe me or not. Every snake I have obtained has put on 100 grams of weight a month. And all I do is feed them once a week and when they where under 700 grams I would feed them every 5 days, but smaller meals. If I was to go aggressive I hate to think how big these girls would have become if I was really trying. I have 4 2008 females that will all be over 1300 grams easily by this December.

Well, here is the deal. I take care of these snakes day to day, usually hour to hour, and they do not miss a meal. I know for a fact that there are many people that do not record keep and they sometimes only feed there snakes 1 to 2 times a month. Am I a bad guy for being on top of my snakes and keeping them on a very regimented schedule. I know I could be feeding them more because in between meals my big girls come out and roam at night. But they do not eat until it is there night to eat. Anyway, it seems like you are trying to make me feel bad for putting a lot of my energy into raising killer ball pythons. No ego here. Just a guy who loves ball pythons and is committed to taking a 5 star approach on raising them.

To summarize, no one is pushing anything. It takes a lot of effort to grow a ball python and it takes a lot of money to do it as well....Don't hate on the ones that have the resources to put the time and effort into raising there snakes properly....

Sincerely,
Bill
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0.1 Het Albino
0.1 Spider Het Albino
1.0 Albino
0.1 Spinner
2.1 Super Pastel
0.1 Jungle Pastel
0.1 Het Pied
1.0 Pied 50 percent
0.1 Clown
1.1 Het Lavenders
1.1 Het Caramel Albino
0.3 Normal
1.1 Kids
0.1 Spouse
1.0 Chocolate Lab

I think your taking the right approach. I feed similiar to you and not every snake eats the same. Some balls just want to grow and will eat aggressively and others in my collection regulate well on their own. While there is some generally accepted practices in raising and breeding balls, some on the forums will try to impose their beliefs as gospel. These people are not the foremost experts in the field, so who cares what they think and believe. Do what you know to be right for YOUR collection. Good luck with your breeding season.
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