Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does it happen often that you buy a male BP and you end up with
an Infertile one???
How common (un common)is it?
I can't imagine buying a USD 50,000 BP morph and then getting a sterile one.
What are your thoughts on this issue ???

amin

Certainly there are people with much larger sample sizes than I but so far I've produced from 10 males and haven't yet encountered a confirmed non-breeder male. It will be interesting to get feedback from the few people who have attempted to breed hundreds of male ball pythons.

I have had a few that made me wonder at least a little bit though.

A 1999 66% chance het caramel didn't produce his first clutch until this year (5 years old). I suspect it was that he just wasn't ready (although he is a great eater and good sized) as he was offered several girls including one that was a proven breeder in past years. You never know if it could have just been a compatibility issue or that the females just weren’t in as good of condition as I thought they where. Better late than never though as I finally got 5 daughters out of him this year for his 5th birthday.

This year I also had an 18 month old 50% chance het clown male not produce with the same proven breeder female so again I don't know if he just wasn't yet ready or if she was too fat or something after skipping the year before with the possible het caramel male. With only one female offered and at 18 months old I'm not yet ready to consider the 50% chance het clown male a strike out.