Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is going to be my first official year of breeding ball pythons. I have four balls, an 02 normal girl, an 03 normal girl, an 02 hypo boy and an 03 pastel boy. My 02 girl shed and defecated last night, and this morning weighs in at exactly 1700 grams.

I think each of the males will be ready to at least give it a go this season. They are good sized, and as far as I can tell (I might be wrong, new at this) they are either producing plugs (my 03 pastel), or have in the past (my 02 hypo).

What I would like to do is give both boys their turn, but then there's the problem of not knowing who the father is when (fingers crossed!) I get and hatch a clutch. So I could not sell the normals as 100% hets if I got a clutch of all normals-- because they could be normal pastel sibs or hypo hets. Right now, this is my plan, and I will hold back the best female and sell the others as "maybe hypo hets" if that does happen.

I would love to be able to produce pastels this year to sell and then put the cash towards getting my 05 pastel female, which I plan on doing no matter what happens from 8Ball Pythons who I got my sweet 03 girl from. I'm thinking pastels are higher $ than hypo hets, giving me more cash to play with if I produce any pastel offspring. But if I go for hypo hets, I can keep one or two girls back to breed to daddy and make more of him. He is a goregeous green hypo from John Martino. I've been to Daytona the past two years, and from what I've seen, he is a very nice animal with some great potential.

My ultimate goals are to produce hypo/pastel/axanthic crosses (hopefully I'll be able to afford an axanthic some day), aquire Angolans and try to breed them, and play with my spectacular carpet collection (so far .1 Leary jungle and 1.1 Spitfire IJs.) I know this one season is not exactly Earth-shattering in the long run, but I would like to be able to fund all these python dreams and aspirations I have.

So I ask you, the BP forum, what would you do here? Just the pastel, keeping in mind he's just a kid and may not produce hearty sperm, just the hypo, or let them fight it out, one one-night-stand at a time? Thanks for reading this, anyway, and I know I'm thinking too much about it, counting my hypo super pastels before they hatch, but it's just too exciting. I can't help it.

np

my opinion is the ghost. granted you may get lucky and get a decent clutch from her and only get 1 pastel male which will prob only go for 600-1000 next yr. or you could get the same clutch with an equal number male/female and sell 2 pairs for roughly 600-1000 each pair and make more money and keep a female for your future breeding projects. remember recessive traits hold value longer so the sooner you start making ghost's the longer you will be making money and being able to cross into your pastel line. and heck you could just fork out a few hundred bucks and get another female that is breeding size now and breed both.
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2.0 het pied
1.1 het albino
0.8 normal
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

Sell off the pastels as pastels, sell off the normal looking males as normal males, and keep back all the normal looking females (since they may be het. ghosts)....Raise up all the girls yourself and breed the hypo back to them when they are ready and prove them out!! Then you'll know what you got...People are always in a hurry to make visuals and sell them and make money....But, have fun...Play with hets. and pos. hets. and you can still make your visuals...May take longer, but it's worth it...Ghosts won't be much lower in price in the next 2-4 yrs. I will be my dollar...Look at them now...Try to find a female Ghost...Play around, make morphs, and money will follow if done right...
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www.bustyballpythons.com

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sig file edited for tos violation. [phw 8/12/04]