Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi, i am interested in breeding pythons. I have expierence with breeding reptiles such as uromastyx, bearded dragons, and a couple others. Right now i am stumped on what morphs to get and at what ages. Saving money is a major factor in my choice of morph. Right now pastels have caught my eye, along with albino's. I am really trying to figure out genetics in order to produce stunning offspring. Here ar a few questions:
1. Does the python's sex matter genetically?
2. When breeding with a Het, does morph selection matter? Would breeding a pastel X 100% Het albino produce good offspring, or is it better to breed within the morph, such as, a pastel X 100% Het Pastel.
3. What are the going rates for pastels & albino's regarding size.
5. Where can i find a reputable breeder with low prices and good genetics.
6. How much coloration is lost as the snakes get older.

thank you for your time,
mike

1. Does the python's sex matter genetically?
2. When breeding with a Het, does morph selection matter? Would breeding a pastel X 100% Het albino produce good offspring, or is it better to breed within the morph, such as, a pastel X 100% Het Pastel.
3. What are the going rates for pastels & albino's regarding size.
5. Where can i find a reputable breeder with low prices and good genetics.
6. How much coloration is lost as the snakes get older.

Mike,
Im still new to bp's myself, but I have done my fair of research regarding the same question you asked, as I am in the same boat.

1. I have noticed that females are typically the more expensive snakes for a few reasons. One, you can only have as many clutches as you have females. Two, females take longer to reach breeding size (1400 grams depending on your take on the ethics of breed, a pretty hot topic here lately).

2. You might want to do a bit of research on this topic, regarding genetics, ralph davis has good info, so do many other good breeders. Simply put, there are two classes of morphs, dominate or recessive. Pastel for example is a dominate morph, meaning that if you breed a male pastel to a normal female you will get 50% pastel and 50% normal offspring (potentionally). With dom morphs, its binary, the offspring either carries the gene or it doesn't, so you cannot have a het dom gene. Recessive genes are not this way. Albinos for example are recessive, an albino male bred to a normal female will produce a clutch of 100% het. offspring, an albino male to an albino female will produce 100% albinos, etc. etc. You might want to dust off the old bio book and take a look at punit squares. Like I said, do some searching online, there are many good links thay lay everything out a lot better than I can.

3. This is another hot topic (the ball python market...). Keep an eye on the classifieds.

5. There is a board out there somewhere where people post about breeders and how they felt business was with them. Also, just stick around on this board, you will get a feeling on who knows whats up. And just call the breeder and talk to them, that should lock in if they know whats going on.

Like I said, I am still learning myself, but who isn't with this hobby? This are still being discovered, and new stuff is popping up every day. I hope I helped at all, I thought I would just take a stab at answering your questions.

~Johnny

>1. Does the python's sex matter genetically?

No. It may matter for other reasons, though. For example, a single male heterozygous pastel ball python could be bred to several females. This would produce more pastel babies than a single female heterozygous pastel that was bred to a normal male.

>2. When breeding with a Het, does morph selection matter? Would breeding a pastel X 100% Het albino produce good offspring, or is it better to breed within the morph, such as, a pastel X 100% Het Pastel.

Morph selection would definitely matter. For example, with a recessive mutant gene like albino, you're better off breeding two snakes that each have at least one albino mutant gene. With dominant and codominant mutant genes, like pastel and spider, it doesn't matter, most of the time.

To really get a handle on genetics, you ought to look at a genetics textbook. A text would not mention ball pythons, but a dominant mutant gene in a mouse or a fruit fly produces the same breeding results as a dominant mutant gene in a ball python.

I worked in a university genetics lab for several years. In my opinion, most of the herper web sites with genetics page are as dangerous to ones intellectual health as walking through a minefield is to ones physical health. Let me qualify that -- as dangerous as walking through a minefield while blindfolded and staggering drunk. And even the best pages are limited compared to a text. Ralph Davis' genetics pages are not among the best herper genetics pages, in my opinion.

Paul Hollander

"...walking through a minefield while blindfolded and staggering drunk."

Ah! The ol' walking through a minefield while blindfolded and staggering drunk nights. I miss my college days. =/

Chris
-----
mean people suck

agreed, rdr's site is a scratch on surface when it comes to genetics, but I simply pointed him in that direction because what rdr's site does do is supply both the genetics side, and the photographs of the snakes along with the genetics. This will allow both a literary and visual understanding of the concept at hand (ball python mutation genetics). It is for this reason that I stated that he might wish to dust off the old bio textbooks and get the straight facts (which I did myself).

Just trying to clear up what I was saying, I admit, I wasn't quite as clear as I should have.

~Johnny

P.S. "walking through mindfields" isn't that a prodigy song? off the Matrix movie? are we talking genetics here, or parallel worlds, haha, just kidding, ima geek, ill leave now.......

http://www.3dpythons.com/Genes.html

Mike at 3-D Pythons