Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey Guys,
I am over from the Bearded Dragon and Tree frog forums, but just inherited two juvi male ball pythons. They are brothers, and the guy gave them to me swears they are het for pie....(he bought them for his 5 year old daugthers for 150$ a piece from a breeder, not a store, needless to say, they got bored of them quick!). I was just wondering what you guys would suggest to find out of they really are het for pie, because I would just pass out to get my hands on a piebald baby! Should I contact some ball people in my area and set up a breeding? Is there some way to tell without a breeding? (I used to breed canaries, and the genetics isnt new to me, but in birds with some heterozygous recessive traits there are tricks to tell). let me know, I am excited and apprehensive at the same time.

$150 is a little cheap for a 100% het pied male. Perhaps they are possible hets?

I've seen reports that 70-80% of het piebalds have the marker belly (last 1/3 white all three or nearly all three scales across and bordered by thick black edges). However, in addition to 20-30% of the hets not having the marker there are reports of some assumed non hets having something like it.

If you are serious about producing het pieds on a budget then your best bet would be to spring for a for sure 100% het male from a reliable source for a few hundred more but if either of these males has a good marker (quality varies) and you find a normal to breed it to you might hold back any females that inherit the marker and MAYBE you will produce a pied the next generation after years of work.

Hi Randy,

My Het pied straight from Ralph does not have those markers - so it's def not a sure thing, and lots of normal snakes do.

I agree $150 would be really cheap for a het.

Christy

Yep, the estimates I've seen are that 20-30% of hets don't have the marker. I'm not so sure about lots of normals having it though. Maybe some of those aren't talking about the same thing and maybe some aren't normals.

Find out who the breeder was he got them from, give them a call, etc. etc. Good luck!

do not distinguish or remember when I tell them they are buying a "possible het" corn for something or other (instead of a for sure het), and sometimes don't seem to even remember when they are buying a definite het instead of the actual morph. They just get confused. I am sure that won't be the case when somebody is paying $1K or more for a BP morph, but I could easily see a beginner mistaking a $150 possible piebald het for a 100% for sure het. They just tend to not remember the exact details. As the last post said, see if you can contact the actual breeder for more info.

Actually I've seen enough confusion I wouldn't even be surprised to see people confused by $1K animals. I guess it's a good reason to make paperwork - people easily get confused. Several times I've sold possible hets only to see them resold as hets.