Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Looking on the classified page, I saw an ad for a 100% DH for Normal female for $199.

Is this a morph I've never heard of?

And the seller said she might be ready to breed this year, yet she's only 707g??? Is it possible for such small BP to be ready?
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...got balls?

graycat

Letting me live here:
2.2 normals
0.1 pie ball
1.0 hetpied
0.1 Suriname
? Common snapping turtle
? Alligator snapping turtle
1 Guinea pig
2 gold fish (turtle survivors)
3 pet rats and
3 cats
Oh yeah, and 3 children!

the title was a joke, just poking at all the 100%, DH, and 50% hets that are on there right now. I doubt they are trying to mislead anyone. As for breeding this year I don't think so, maybe early next year if she keeps feeding through the winter, the feeding schedule is switched to rats and stepped up.

You also have to consider some breed ball pythons at a much smaller size than would be recommended by most. I'm sure the first ball pythons I bred were under the 1500 gram mark probably more in the 1200-1300 gram range, but without a scale at the time no way of knowing. They were of age and that is what all the books talked about not much on length and weight. They also laid all good eggs, small clutches but good eggs so if it wasn't for the boom in ball pythons and all the additional info I would probably be doing the same.

I have seen plenty of adds that are scams but you have to put it into context. In this add they are asking a fair price for a normal female of that weight and just because some of the info may be misleading I don't think it was their intent.

and just incase if anyone is wondering: No I don't know who posted the add, I just read through it and commented...

And as always just my opinion.

George Knaack
GLK HERP

Well I'm glad I wasn't missing anything! For a second there I though I had some more expensive snakes than I was thinking!

I have a female who is about 1000g right now and I'm hoping to breed her next season; she'll be 2 then. I'm hoping that she'll put on enough weight by then - I'm shooting for the 1500g range, although at 1000g she seems kinda chunky!

Did all the eggs survive from your clutch?
-----
...got balls?

graycat

Letting me live here:
2.2 normals
0.1 pie ball
1.0 hetpied
0.1 Suriname
? Common snapping turtle
? Alligator snapping turtle
1 Guinea pig
2 gold fish (turtle survivors)
3 pet rats and
3 cats
Oh yeah, and 3 children!

I had three clutches from three different females that I would now say were to small for breeding. All the eggs were normal sized and hatched healthy animals that did all survive, some of the females are being used as breeders now. They were just small clutches 2 in one and 3 each for the other two. These females were three years old when breed so the age was there just not the size, they were on a more reserved feeding schedule than I use with ball pythons now.

It would be interesting to see a study done on the weights of all the gravid wild caught females that are imported. Granted do to stress of being shipped you couldn't get an accurate idea of hatching success but maybe an idea on average weights of the females and clutch sizes. Just something that might be cool to look at.

George