>>Hey all. I have a beautiful 2.5 year old female albino corn. She's in the 3 foot range and I am thinking about breeding her. I currently do not have a male and am curious what you all would reccommend me breeding her to. Another albino male? Ghost male? I've never bred corn snakes and would like to give it a shot. I figure if I'm going to do it, I might as well do it well and the correct way. Is she even ready to breed? I've heard mixed reviews on when to breed females. Thanks in advance for the help.
Howdy,
I think the MOST important thing would be what do YOU want to produce out of her? Since she is an albino, if you bred it to ANY albino cornsnake, you will get albinos (ex: albino, albino motley, butter, snow, blizzard, etc.) het for the other traits. Unless she is het for aner or hypo (or the ghost is het for amel or they are both het for some OTHER trait), you'd just get normals breeding her to a ghost. Ditto on the amel, except that MANY albinos are het for aner (aka, het for snow), so it wouldn't surprise me at all if you bred her to a snow and got amels and snows in the first generation. So, if you want multiple hets in the first generation that look normal, pick something that would invoilve producing a trait you like in a few generations. If you want something that produces albinos when they first hatch out - get some type of albino corn. Of course, get an ultramel and get ultramels and amels in the first generation, too. 
If she is gonna be 3 years old and 3' long in the spring andf of HEALTHY girth/mass, she should be fine to breed. A little over 3' is safer, but usually not necessary. Remember, though, that snakes die from attempted breeding EACH year with people that have a lot of experience. Breeding is NOT the safest thing in the world. I'm not trying to talk you out of it, but if she is a pure PET, you do need to know the risk. The process of breedingsnakes CAN occasionally result in the death of the female and/or (very rarely) the male.
Anyway, this isn't a reason to not try if you want to (heck, I breed mine!), but just be aware of the risk so you take precautions to minimize it. OR, if you want to do nothinbg that could increase a risk to a pet, pass on the breeding. (It actually isn't that risky, but some do die from the process - especially if bred to small, are obese, etc.)
