Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all, and allow me to introduce myself. I never go to the ball python forum, but my name is john and I keep a small collecton of pythons. I used to have ball pythons, but now I just keep green trees, white lips, carpets, bloods, etc etc.

I'll be blunt- Im trying to start making some money off of my love of herps and complete devotion to their taxonomic principals. Basically, I have $4000 dollars saved up right now. My friend has $3000. We want to do a partnership where we each buy a snake and I do the propagating. My friend is not herptelogically savy, so he will put his trust in me to maintain his portion of the animal(s), along with succesful breeding. I want to buy an albino ball python, but there is a price difference. I'm sure that females cost a little more than males. Here is where you come in...

My friend and I are willing to save even more money, which leads me to the next question; are any adult albino pairs available? How much is an adult male worth? An adult female? Do they even exist in the market?

As for the juvies I see for 2K, I would have to wait a good solid 3 years before they could be bred....

The situation is, my "business" partner lives in CT, and I live 2500 miles away in CA. We've been friends for quite a while until I moved, and I know he's very keen with math and accounting and business logistic, and he's very interested in a business opportunity as well. Of course we are realistic, and will continue to work a "Regular" job, but for the time being, what do you see coming from this? Is the risk far too high? Ive heard female albinos dropping only 3 eggs, which wouldnt even be profiting considering what they are worth, and all other expenses (vet bills, food, heating, etc) hence the reason him and I are willing to wait longer and save more.

Basically, I know nothing about the albino ball business. Does the supply never meet the demand? Would albino Bloods be a more promising opportunity, since they lay more eggs, breed easier (or just as easy), and eat more readily? I would like a few knowledgeable opinions, if it wouldnt be too much trouble. I am very serious about this. I am 19 right now and have been collecting and studying and saving for the last 6 years.

I wanted to breed my GTP, and now have found out zoning ordinances will provent me from doing any such thing. Thanks in advance,

best,
John
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Everything I saw was a terrible bore because I'd seen it all before

The Civil Surface, 1974

John, you've presented your case study very well.

I would start by mentioning to you that you should not get into balls with the only goal in mind to make money, the love and passion goes a long way in the ball paython industry, I can honestly say, most keeper/breeder here love ball pythons and there is money to be made but you must have the passion.

You could find an adult male albino for $3 000 to $5 000, there was a few for sale on the classifieds. As for females however, I would stay away from any AD females for sale, after all, why would anyone sell an adult female albino that could produce tenfold. Just doesn't happen...

If you want to produce albinos, there will always be a demand for them, do not worry about that. I beleive you should also consider working towards the double recessive or dominant projects. Those who produce albinos carrying other genes will be ahead of the game when everyone else has normal albinos for sale.

There really isn't any shortcuts, you will need to raise females for the next 3 years at a minimum to produce any albinos.

If you go with the heterozygous route, make sure to purchase from a reliable source, there are lotsa dogs out there misrepresenting their animals, ask questions, get references, the good guys will always stand out...

Go for it and above all else, enjoy the passion...

Brian A.

.....first...no partners.you buy and breed and make all your own money.....your friend buys and breeds all his own snakes.partners are never a good idea....especially if they live farther than an hour drive apart..well.make that 10 minutes....you get the idea.....he will learn to breed if he wants snake money.....

albino project......get a bunch of het albino females and raise them for a year then go buy an albino male or two.....yes.it takes time.........

you want adults?...male albino is 2000$...an 8 month old one can breed and people will call it a young adult and charge you 3000 to 4000$ probably.........

het females are $800 more or less.....a year old one will maybe set you back $1000(I doubt it).to $1200 or 1500........a 2 year old or older one they will maybe rob you of $3000?.they don't sell much.........

you get the idea......

female hets for good price .........like 6 or 8.........then next year 2 male albinos.....

best way to go.........

..............

yes some females will lay 3 eggs.some 7 first batch.......I have a het that laid 6.gave 5 albino males.and this year gave me 3 huge eggs and a dud......I have another het that didn't lay yet.and she's an '01 baby........

it's all in the odds......

have fun............

how many you want?......
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wow.....did you think of that all by yourself?.....
better take a break ................

case .

I had 2 HUGE females that produced 10 or more eggs a year for me.sold them to a GOOD ol'e boy that been breeding for 30 years.(so he knows critters)........they didn't produde for him for 3 years.........

you move adults they get wierd alot.......even from one rack to another they may stop eating or act differently.

why?....who knows....balls suck........LOL....

BEST way is to buy baby and keep them in the same room till they breed......

yes it takes......3 years........
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wow.....did you think of that all by yourself?.....
better take a break ................

Good advice so far. I had the same idea in 2001. I purchased 6 female het albino ball pythons and two male albinos. My advice to you is to purchase het females. A het albino female can be purchased for a third of the cost of a female albino, yet when bred to an albino male the hets produce one half as many albinos. As long as you have the male albino, then female het albinos are more valuable than female albinos (provided your goal is to produce albinos). However, understand that it will be difficult for you to sell hets as an unknown. I am experiencing this difficulty now (even with great references).

Price for a proven breeder male albino at least 2 years old should be a minimum $3500. I have a 2001 male albino breeder that I (literally) would not sell for less than $10,000 because he is a breeding MACHINE! (so, don't expect to purchase any "proven" male albino with a fantastic breeding record) A second, and rather attractive, breeder male that I have will readily breed, but nothing like my alpha male. I would let him go for $5000 (owing in large part to his beauty)

Getting into balls(snakes) for the money is always a BAD thing, both for you and the snake.

Now about the partner NOT A GOOD IDEA, it just aint, I don't care how long you have known them it's just not a good idea.

You could make more money in other things that don't involve a living thing, with less risk, and better return.

This is just how I feel, Right or Wrong, it's how I feel.

Have a good day

You could even get a male albino a couple of het females and 3 or 4 normals they would still make 100% het and the het females are still worth $ .My male and 2 het females

The albino ball is what put me on the map, no doubt! It seems that supply never exceeds demand with albino balls, unlike caramel albinos they seem to do very well and not have kinking problems like the caramels often times do! Female albinos can lay normal sized clutches , that's not a problem, I would wait until she is 3 though before trying to breed her, a 2 year old may lay 3-4 eggs but a 3 1/2 year old female should lay 5-7 eggs without much problem. Actually I prefer to breed albino males to het albino females, this way I think your keeping the "strength" in your line, albino x albino works , but I think it may cause a weaker animal in the end (especially if closely related, unrelated albino x albino may be just fine) so I stick with the het females and turn out some awesome albinos this way! I've been breeding albinos since 1998 and have had excellent luck with them , all my customers seem to think my line grows faster and produces better than alot of the other albinos out there (in my opinion alot of other albinos are inbred to much). Albinos are always going to be hot and sell easily , they are a must have morph if your breeding balls. By the way it would be hard to find a good pair of albino adults for sale, if you did plan on spending around 10,000 for the pair, if they are decent animals they would be at least that much! Anthony McCain-McCain's Reptiles. www.regiusmorphs.com

get a female albino sub adult if possible then get a 100% het albino from a trustworthy breeder, that will save you some $$$ and may help fund another project

>>get a female albino sub adult if possible then get a 100% het albino from a trustworthy breeder, that will save you some $$$ and may help fund another project

I hope you don't mean use a het male with a female albino. You would be better off with the reverse.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

Why would he be better off with the reverse. An adult female could always be used in combo project after making more albinos...

I'd have to agree for the price of a female albino you can get 2 or 3 hets of the same price, which when bred to an albino male will give you more albinos and hets to sell in the long run. Then if you wanted to hold one of the albino females back for other projects you could always do that and still make a bigger profit.
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Tosha

"Stupid is forever, ignorance can be fixed." Don Wood

"Of course, that's only my opinion...and I believe I am God." =) Chris Bianco

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A Male could breed with normals also and make hets you are only going to have one shoot with the female

>>Why would he be better off with the reverse. An adult female could always be used in combo project after making more albinos...

So could an albino male but you can do "more" with a male. Consider the following (hypothetical):

Albino F X Het M = 8 eggs. You are now done for the season.

Albino M X Het F = 8 eggs. Same ratio.
Albino M X Normal F = 8 eggs all 100% het
Albino M X Normal F = 8 eggs all 100% het
Albino M X Normal F = 8 eggs all 100% het

Instead of producing on clutch of albinos and hets, you can now produce a clutch of albinos and several clutches of 100% hets.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

If zoning ordinances keep you from breeding chondros, why wouldn't they keep you from breeding ball pythons?....doesn't make sense to me.

Brandon Osborne

I will have moved by the time I want to breed albinos.
Some places are discriminatory to GTPs and ETB's (mass for example). Its sick, but true. You can keep a carpondro legally, just not a GTP
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Everything I saw was a terrible bore because I'd seen it all before

The Civil Surface, 1974