Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok just a small simple question, to breed? ok i no im only a teenager, but eventually ill sumhow end up with two snakes, if i get a ball python. Now if i have a local expo that i could possible sell them at, and am willing to pay the expenses, do u think a good idea to start breeding, also, what are some good color combinations, that could be possibly under $300 for at least a het?
Thanks
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Nic
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Any hets under $300 is usually a young male het for albino. Thats about it. Everything is still pretty much starts over around $500 and thats just for a female het albino. Most homozygous versions and visual morphs will go well over $1500, with the females usually being twice as much. Best of luck to you.

Het ghost.

I say keep learning and saving money. Remember to factor in the cost of equipment, snakes, and feeding. I say keep saving for homozygotes of a simple recessive morph. I highly recommend it. A pair or trio of albinos would be a great idea, or perhaps an albino male and some het females.

Perhaps even get some normal females ASAP and start raising them. They could be bred to a male pastel that you could get a year or two down the road. This option will give you some practice with animals that aren't so expensive (keeping multiple animals is QUITE different than keeping a single ball python) as well as themselves being quite valuable as adults.

Buy a male and as many normal females as you can afford. With the money you get from the clutches of normals, you can buy hets or homos of various morphs. Once you have het or homo males, you'll want to breed them to a few females each.

Normal females are the key!
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Nic,

I am 20 and just decided a few months ago to start breeding balls also. Up until this point I have kept ball pythons, boas (hog island, brazilian rainbow, common) and bred beardies for a year or so. I jumped into this hobby, not because of the money I will make (if any) but because I think the amount of ball morphs out there is amazing. I just like owning them and breeding them is a perk. Not only do you have to consider the cost of the snakes, but you have to take everything else into consideration. To get a rack set-up, thermostat, water dishes, and hide boxes you need money. Depending on what you go with will depend on how much it costs, but if you are going to do it you want to do it right. Then you have to take into account feeding your balls. Feeding a couple is nothing, but feeding many gets costly. I don't even have that many ball pythons (8 total) but they all eat twice a week. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say that each rat pup costs $1, even at this rate that is $16/wk and that's $64/month. I know you can breed your own rodents, but that takes money and time. And if you’re a teenager I am guessing you’re in school so time is limited. Once you figure out all this and how much start up will cost you, then you have to figure out what the snakes will cost you. You can't bank on one pair of hets. to start up to make some $ either, because males and females don't guarantee you that they will breed each yr. for you (females usually every other). So you'll need a back up plan (translation= more $ spent on another pair of hets.). I am not in anyway trying to discourage you from breeding ball pythons, but it isn't as easy as most people think. You will spend far more money than you think, and you won't see a return on it for quite some time. I started this with a goal to have my snakes eventually pay for themselves in the next 3 yrs. or so. I know I am going to bite the bullet, but I already knew that before I started. Ok, so you have your set-up ready, your snakes, and they have already bred for you and you have offspring and are at your local show. First off, you are competing with the group of TOP DOGS ball breeders (RDR, Bob Clark, Morphking, Graziani, NERD, Snakekeeper, etc.) that we little guys can't compete with. Secondly, all you have are hets.. What is your proof that the offspring are hets.? I know that you are using hets., but when you show a potential buyer that the parents look normal they will question it. Hets. are harder to move than people think they are, especially when you’re not a known breeder. I am just saying that before you jump into it and spend all your cheddar you have to consider all this. Seriously, to get started with what you want to breed you will need at least 1k and be prepared to have that tied up for at least a year most likely two. My recommendation to you is to save up for a while and once you get your thousand or so dollars decide if you still want to breed ball pythons, and if you do I say save some more $ and buy visuals. Visuals sell faster than hets. and being a nobody you don't have to worry about proving genetics because the morph is showing. Buy a pastel male and/or female and get started that way. Good Luck man!!! Once again, I am not trying to stop you from doing this but you need to know how it really is. All you see on KS are the people that took the gamble and became successful, what you don't see are the people that spend a few thousand dollars and bankrupted in the first year or so because they were expecting to make serious money fast. Remember, a morph may be $700 today but tomorrow it may be worth only $500. Or it could be the opposite. It is supply in demand. I may take some heat for saying all this and have people tell me that it is different, but it is not. Remember, that no matter what the business is for every successful businesses out there, there are 10 unsuccessful ones.

Dom

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