Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Folks,

I have been away from any herp breeding projects since 9/11/01 (I was in the Army, now retired).

Since I have been away for so long and now it seems there are so many different ball morphs, I have a simple question (if there is such a thing).

Question: If you had $1,500 and wanted to start a Ball Python breeding project what morphs would you invest in and what ratio of male to females?

I understand that if I breed 1 male albino to 1 female albino, they would produce all albino babies. What I am really curious about is... If I had 1 albino male, 1 bumblebee female, 1 spider female and 1 cinnamin female, how many different morphs could I produce (This is a complete hypothetical 1.3 morph example ONLY!)?

I guess what I am asking is... How do I get the most bang for my $$$ to launch this new breeding project?

Any thoughts and ideas as to how best for me to spend my money on this project would be greatly appreciated.

One final note...
I don't have any special sources for these animals. I will be purchasing from breeders on kingsnake.com. So it's not like I can score awesome animals for great prices. The price I'll have to pay is what is listed here in the classifieds. Please keep this in mind.

Again, THANK YOU for any ideas you may have.

Very Respectfully,
Jarrett

Given the scenario you provided, you could produce normals, pastels, spiders, bumblebees, and cinnamons, all het for albino.

The site below might help you out some.
genetics wizard

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www.jasonrbartolettreptiles.webs.com

First off, let me say THANK YOU for your service. I, for one, am very grateful for folks like you who are willing to step up so that the rest of us can continue enjoying our day to day lives in relative security.
Given what you have laid out, I think the wise money goes to buying visual (not het) recessive females such as albino, clown, axanthic, hypo, etc.(whatever you find appealing and can afford) and one or two dominant or co-dom morph males. The male could be a spider, pinstripe, lesser, mojave, pastel...huge array of choices here. Then once your females are mature you can make dom/co-dom morphs that are het for recessive traits. Those offspring are not only valuable but you can also keep the best males and in a short time breed them back to your already mature females producing things like albino-pins, pastel clowns, axanthic spiders.
Another nice thing about using visual recessive females is that even your "normal" offspring will be 100% het for something.

John

Buy all of your females first since your not going to be able to breed them for 2-3 years anyways, and then get your male when your females get a lil bit closer to breeding size... This way you could spend a lil bit more on your females and have 2 years to save up for a awesome male to breed them to....

figure out what morphs YOU WANT then go to show and buy a bunch of females.....next year go buy a couple males....

tadaaa...

wait.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

buy racks....probably use the 1500$ just for good racks....then next year you can start with snakes....!!!!!!
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........JY

If I wanted to seriously get into this thing and had only $1500, I'd start off by getting a bunch of adult normal females. A lot of breeders are getting rid of their proven normale females, and you can pick them up pretty cheaply. I'd also check places like craigslist and your local paper.

For males, here are a couple of options:

1. Get one higher-end combo male, such as a firefly. This would allow you produce stuff next year that you could trade for other balls.

2. Get several lower-end, proven breeder males, like spider, cinnamon, pinstripe, etc. This would allow you to produce a bunch of females THIS year that you could start holding back for future breeding stock. You could probably get numerous proven breeder, single gene males for a very reasonable price.

3. Get one lower-end combo male (such as a bumblebee), and also several lower-end hatchling males (such as spider, pinstripe, mojave etc.). While you'd have to wait an extra year for these guys to breed, you could probably get a decent group of single-gene males for next to nothing.

Overall, I'd stay away from recessive animals because of your limited funds and the amount of time they take to start producing visual animals.

if you want to start breeding....buy whatever females you like and can afford now.....

when the females are sub adults get your males.....

by the time the males are ready to breed the females will most likely be ready aswell.

good luck

Pitoon

>>Hi Folks,
>>
>>I have been away from any herp breeding projects since 9/11/01 (I was in the Army, now retired).
>>
>>Since I have been away for so long and now it seems there are so many different ball morphs, I have a simple question (if there is such a thing).
>>
>>Question: If you had $1,500 and wanted to start a Ball Python breeding project what morphs would you invest in and what ratio of male to females?
>>
>>I understand that if I breed 1 male albino to 1 female albino, they would produce all albino babies. What I am really curious about is... If I had 1 albino male, 1 bumblebee female, 1 spider female and 1 cinnamin female, how many different morphs could I produce (This is a complete hypothetical 1.3 morph example ONLY!)?
>>
>>I guess what I am asking is... How do I get the most bang for my $$$ to launch this new breeding project?
>>
>>Any thoughts and ideas as to how best for me to spend my money on this project would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>>One final note...
>>I don't have any special sources for these animals. I will be purchasing from breeders on kingsnake.com. So it's not like I can score awesome animals for great prices. The price I'll have to pay is what is listed here in the classifieds. Please keep this in mind.
>>
>>Again, THANK YOU for any ideas you may have.
>>
>>Very Respectfully,
>>Jarrett
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