Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This will be my 5th year breeding balls and I'm adding select holdbacks and a making a couple purchases here and there. My collection is growing very slowly but it is growing. I just wanted to know how long everyone else has been breeding reptiles and specifically balls. I'd also like to know what you do for a living if you're not a full time breeder. I'm a retail merchandiser for a Texas based grocery store. Thanks Chris

First year produceing balls, looking at about 30 clutches total out of 48 females it looks like. Just recently began breeding reptiles, have worked with them for years. First Success was in 2009 when I produced Rio Fuerte Beadeds followed by Indian Cobras and a bunch of other non-venomous. Bred 7 different kinds of herps in 2 yrs, not to shabby. I work for The Seminole Tribe Fire Rescue.
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John Light

This year is my first attempt at breeding balls. I am hoping for two clutches. One from an albino x albino pairing and the other from a het-albino x albino pairing. Albino is my favorite morph by far.

I have been keeping/breeding for about 15 years and for a long time specialized in Kenyan Sand Boas. Have also bred bunches of other stuff including leopard geckos, blue tongue skinks, corn snakes, etc.

In my day job I am an animal keeper. I started as a reptile keeper and have since worked with everything from pygmy mice to rhinos. I am currently working with primates.

Rob

This is my 4th season.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

This is my ninth season breeding ball pythons.
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www.strictlyballs.ca

Hatched my first snake eggs (from a pair of wild caught bull snakes) in 1993 but didn't get my first ball python eggs until 2000. Took until 2009 to hatch my first ball python morph. There where plenty of people like the Barkers, Bob Clark, Peter Kahl, and Ernie Wagner doing it long before (and way better than) me. Funny to remember going to the library about 1990 and trying to find any info on a rumored snake magazine to get contacts for breeders to send a self addressed stamped envelope to for a printed price list. I configure software for a living.

I'm 31 now and I've been breeding reptiles of some kind every year since I was 13.

Green anoles, brown anoles, Knight anoles, leopard and fat tail geckos, Coleonyx mitratus and C. variagatus bogerti Paroedura pictus, Several Day Geckos Phelsuma m. grandis, P.m. kochi, P. seippi. Igunanas when I was 17 (that was awesome) Palmatogecko rangei, Teratoscincus keyzerlingi and a couple types of house geckos just because. Veiled chameleons fit in there somewhere. My first snake to breed was mexican rosy boas (triv trivs) Reticulated pythons starting in 01 or 02 for about 5 years and ball pythons starting in 04 while I was working for Wilbanks and Bci most recently, only 2 years ago.

Sorry, that's a hodge-podge of info. As for the latin that's just how I learned about them...again sorry

ive been keeping as pets and whatnot, for about 8 years. at first it was boas now I have balls. This year will be my first breeding season. Im a store manager for a growing auto parts store. 3600 stores and growing!

I have kept reptiles since i was 11. 27 years now. This is my 5th season breeding as well. My first season breeding snakes other than balls though. I have included boas and colubrids this season.

I am a fireman in the Atlanta area by day.

I've been breeding reptiles of one kind or another for 20 years. Everything from the giant constrictors to tiny eastern milks. After being bitten and constricted (nearly fatally) by my 16 foot female burmese I sold and/or gave away my entire snake collection and focused completely on Leopard geckos for the past 7 years.
My heart always belonged to the snakes though so I've recently started collecting Ball pythons again. This will be my first season hatching snakes since 2004. I'm drawn to BP's by the huge variety of morphs and the quality of the captive born babies available these days.
I'm a UPS delivery driver by day...

John

Produced my first Balls in 1992! I wish I could remember all the smart azzes that said: "Why you breeding BALL PYTHONS"? BTW, glad you're still w/us John Y.

JY also mentioned and I had almost forgot about when ball pythons where very low on the list of favored snakes. I bought my first about 1989 and she was of course a wild caught adult like most where then and took 6 months just to eat. Never seriously considered breeding them back then. Wish I had started much earlier. Even when I did eventually start having balls to sell I remember a Denver show around 2000 or 2001 filling out a table form and the show guy commenting that he didn't think they had anyone selling ball pythons before; now seems like forever that almost every table has ball pythons.

LOL......balls.......eeeeew......all they do is roll up in a ball, set under a hide and don't eat....they cost 100$ for gravid ones and you can pick up huge females all around for $40........wait...that was in 1995....and last week too....!!! around and around.....prices are all about the same again.....corns $3....wait...in 1995 I got 10$....mice sell the same here as in 1995....sucks...yet lab chow went from $8 retail a bag to 20$......corn was $3.50 a bag and was 100 pounds where I went....oats 3.50$ ...it all went up and down with the farm prices......sad....how little I actually make on stuff....

balls.....wild huge females....people whine if you tell them a ball female is like over 10 years old..."is she burned out"....yet they pick up wild girls that MIGHT be 35 years old....???...I had some girls that looked old when I got them, bred them for 10 years, and they looked the same when I sold them......they should still be breeding well....

as said...my first huge ball was female and was dropped here for me to babysit...he said...three weeks and I'll be back from Florida...I'll pay you $1 a mouse for feeding her....he never came back....I got a free male rescue from someone else...and ended up getting eggs...easy...so I went and bought 3 more BIG girls for $40 each....bred them like said for around 10 or more years....and bred their kids for 10 years almost...HUGE balls , and the kids did grow too...along with huge albino line from BHB my hets would grow and breed in 20 months...and one laid 10 eggs....so you people breeding 1200 gram balls and getting 3 eggs......buy new stock and feed differently....
OH by the way....the amels and hets and ghosts that were all huge...were all fed MICE for those 10 -15 years !!!!!!!!!!!
Ha!........

Mice....!

.
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........JY

I suppose the big commercial rodent breeders have it down to a science with large scale efficiencies. But still I bet the biggest advantage to your rodent business is what it does for your own collection. I've not raised my own rodents regularly since I got married in 95. My ability to procure the right size and quantity of rodents on a regular basis falls quite short and I've had girls go close to 10 years before their first clutch. But I do have two really nice big girls that eventually got to size and produced 26 eggs between them a while back and are now back on their retired breeder rat diet. Nice thing for me once they get that size is even if I miss a week or two between feedings, big retired breeder male rats can put some serious weight back on.

Produced first clutch Rat Snakes eggs when I was 14. Have had some type of reptile since I was old enough to pick one up.

20 years ago worked for Wes Harris as a curator over his collection. Spent time with Bob Clark and can honestly say I held one of the first if not the first Albino Ball Python and had the pleasure holding his Leusistic Burm when she was still alive and about 12 to 14 feet long. Had a small colection of everything from Bearded Dragons to Albino Burms back then.

Stepped away from reptiles for about 10 years and in the last five years started breeding Beardies on a large scale ..got tired of all the work and sold and traded it all off for BPs.

I am 42 now and last year one clutch of 5 BP eggs so this is my second year producing BP's 11 clutches so far and out of them 13 hatched and 4 peeped this morning, 38 cooking, 6 more females BP's to go all gravid, 29 Red Tails babies came out last Saturday (first year producing them), Hognose females dropping soon (2nd year with them).

I am a Full Time (60 hours a week) Finance Manager for Apple Nissan in York PA.

Travis
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LAIR OF DRAGONS

Very interesting to see everyones replies so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents. I have had snakes on and off for over 25 yrs just as pets (Red tailed Boas), one or two at a time. My son brought a Ball home about 3 or 3 1/2 yrs ago and it set me on fire. Started buying a few babies here and there and last year I was fortunate enough in my first year of breeding them to make 21 clutches. I hope to double that number this year,my 4th yr of keeping Balls. My real job is being a commercial pilot, my real love and hobby is breeding Balls. Jay
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JEMreptiles@gmail.com from sunny AZ.

Lots of cool Ball Pythons along with
0.0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty and some great Bull snakes.
1.1 Argentinian Black and White Tegus
1.0 Gotti Pitbull (Tank)
2.0 Beautiful Bengals (Stryker and Cynbad)
12 Tarantulas
Last but most Important 2.2 Children

played with snakes at young age...parents wouldn't let them in the house....my pigeons and rabbits were also in back of someone else's house....hmmm...a trend...parents still ask why I play with snakes.....bought corns (okee) around 1980' ...some lived till 23 at least (not my house then)...got back into it when my brother caught a milk at his father in law's house...took 10 years and he caught a female under the same rock in the fireplace ...too bad the male died that summer and never bred her....so...the one snake lead to more and more...learned all about colubridae...we all hated balls...boring, non-eating and sucked...got stuck with one because a guy left it here and never came back...bred it and bought 10 more, then more and more...same with milks and corns...we'd never buy just one...we got dozens a year....top year maybe 800 eggs...balls now a focus...odd and ends snakes also...milks...!!!....downsized....down to 135 snakes here,....wait...I hatched 7 this week...crap...rising again...!....work a fulltime job and have awhile to retire...when the knees go...I'll quit it all...

answer...bred snakes since 1991....had snakes since 1970...LOL

....have fun....buy smart....buy many....
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........JY

I started collecting lizards in about 66 or 67 as a kid. I have not been without some type of reptile since 75. Started breeding various herps in 78. Started seriously working with ball pythons in 2004 and have been working with them ever since. I started Twin Cities Reptiles in 1978 and have been working that as a full time job ever since.

I've kept reptiles since I was a kid in Tampa, late 1950's early 1960's. Everything from native Florida snakes and turtles to horned lizards collected on family vacations out west.Had a pet shop in South Miami in 72-73 and hatched baby yellow rats from a wild female. sold the shop in 74 and got out of the hobby (mostly) till we were blown into central Fl after hurricane Andrew. Went to the 93 expo and have been breeding as our primary means of income since 94. Geckos, snakes, tortoises, beardies, ackies, frogs, tarantulas. Started in seriously with balls about five years ago when prices on interesting morphs dropped to the point I figured I could play. Thirty clutches incubating and counting.

Michael Carlton
Inland Sea Exotics

thats hard saying I wa breeding dekays an milk snakes when I was just a pup living in michigan. I remember getting a pair of het for albino burms from an old friend Brian @ BHB.. DAM .. WHAT WAS HE 17 AN I WAS 18.. An Im 45 now. wow.. I had a great Time.

Van
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Forever Trust in what we are,and nothing else Matters

2nd Season...
2 clutches hatched....One in the incubator.

I am in the military..

I think 8 years......owned snakes, well.....for most of my life....

Doing if for a living.....PROUDLY.....

Brandon Boeke
Priceless Pythons