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Which female(s) to begin with?

F

Fireye

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Hello folks!

Getting back into the Ball Pythons after a few year without. Previously my partner and myself kept for fun, hoping to maybe recoup a little money eventually. I moved and he has our small collection.

I want to start very small(and stay quite small) with a baby female or two. I'll be doing this with the objective of making a bit of money off this venture down the road. I am starting with very meager funds (the wife is allowing this, and the less money I sink initially particularly will be all the better) and am contemplating single gene females to acquire. I've also considered a het female for pied or lavender albino perhap. I can't see my animal budget more than $400 intially. Any suggestions? I am not crazy about most darker colored morphs, but by and large I love all ball pythons regardless. Stuff with high yellow is visually very appealing, therefore I've considered yellowbelly and pastel females...additionally the price is attractive from what I've observed. Any suggestions would be awesome!

Thanks,
Fireye
 
Fireye said:
Hello folks!

Getting back into the Ball Pythons after a few year without. Previously my partner and myself kept for fun, hoping to maybe recoup a little money eventually. I moved and he has our small collection.

I want to start very small(and stay quite small) with a baby female or two. I'll be doing this with the objective of making a bit of money off this venture down the road. I am starting with very meager funds (the wife is allowing this, and the less money I sink initially particularly will be all the better) and am contemplating single gene females to acquire. I've also considered a het female for pied or lavender albino perhap. I can't see my animal budget more than $400 intially. Any suggestions? I am not crazy about most darker colored morphs, but by and large I love all ball pythons regardless. Stuff with high yellow is visually very appealing, therefore I've considered yellowbelly and pastel females...additionally the price is attractive from what I've observed. Any suggestions would be awesome!

Thanks,
Fireye
Click to expand...

Congrats on getting back into the game...with 400 I understand you want a couple of females I normals with size.. with the remaining funds you can probably get a nice yb,pastel,lesser,mojave,even a bumblebee (quality might not be that great tho)..
 
It'd get a pastel female and a male fire and make FireFly down the road, a nice snake with inexpensive components. Good luck!
 
You could easily pick up a trio of het pieds with that money, and pieds will always be in demand.
 
Fireye said:
Hello folks!

Getting back into the Ball Pythons after a few year without. Previously my partner and myself kept for fun, hoping to maybe recoup a little money eventually. I moved and he has our small collection.

I want to start very small(and stay quite small) with a baby female or two. I'll be doing this with the objective of making a bit of money off this venture down the road. I am starting with very meager funds (the wife is allowing this, and the less money I sink initially particularly will be all the better) and am contemplating single gene females to acquire. I've also considered a het female for pied or lavender albino perhap. I can't see my animal budget more than $400 intially. Any suggestions? I am not crazy about most darker colored morphs, but by and large I love all ball pythons regardless. Stuff with high yellow is visually very appealing, therefore I've considered yellowbelly and pastel females...additionally the price is attractive from what I've observed. Any suggestions would be awesome!

Thanks,
Fireye
Click to expand...

Vanillas have nice yellows as well when they age.
 
With the current flood of mystics hitting the market, you could get a mojave female now and get a mystic male next year. Mojaves are cheap and mystics are plummeting in price this year and will probably fit your budget (or maybe a big over) by the time you need a male for the female mojo. Mystic potions are pretty darn cool :)
 
Champagnes aren't even close to his current budget.

If you are going with a group of het pieds, do it the responsible way and buy from different people...unless you find somebody that has multiple clutches from which to choose. That will increase your shipping costs, unless you purchase at a show, but (IMO) it is worth it for genetic diversity.

Fire and pastel is a good option for the money, and probably offers the best possibility of bright babies...but fire/yellowbelly, fire/vanilla, lesser/enchi, lesser/pastel, and pewter/lesser are all great starter pairs. (Buy the female first, give her at last a year of growth, then buy your male...and feel free to use mojave, butter, or lesser where I listed lesser).
Heck, buy a mojave and a lesser and make BELs
 
I would start with pastel females. You can probably find someone to give you 3 for $400. As you grow them you can decide what direction you want to go. Everything will go into a pastel. If you get a pied, you wil make pastel het pieds. If you go another direction......pastel goes with everything to make it brighter. If you go with hets, you have to go that direction or its basically like breeding normals. Plus if you spend $400 on a single female and she is a poor eater, you are stuck. This way you have 3 chances to breed sooner than later.
 
Randy F said:
I would start with pastel females. You can probably find someone to give you 3 for $400. As you grow them you can decide what direction you want to go. Everything will go into a pastel. If you get a pied, you wil make pastel het pieds. If you go another direction......pastel goes with everything to make it brighter. If you go with hets, you have to go that direction or its basically like breeding normals. Plus if you spend $400 on a single female and she is a poor eater, you are stuck. This way you have 3 chances to breed sooner than later.
Click to expand...

:iagree: pastels improve every combo and increase the value. The more females you have te better your chances of producing eggs. Like Randy said you get a picky eater and you could be waiting a while. I've had snakes take 6 years to produce eggs, but I've also had them produce at 18 months. You want to help put the odds in your favor. Good luck!
 
There are some really crazy 2 gene animals that I would love to try and make! Playing with the het stuff has me real interested though as well....
 
I'd get a few adult normal breeders and one male double gene that has 2 genes you like. then you could probably produce some clutches this year and keep some females in those genes to expand your operation
 
hhmoore said:
Champagnes aren't even close to his current budget.

If you are going with a group of het pieds, do it the responsible way and buy from different people...unless you find somebody that has multiple clutches from which to choose. That will increase your shipping costs, unless you purchase at a show, but (IMO) it is worth it for genetic diversity.

Fire and pastel is a good option for the money, and probably offers the best possibility of bright babies...but fire/yellowbelly, fire/vanilla, lesser/enchi, lesser/pastel, and pewter/lesser are all great starter pairs. (Buy the female first, give her at last a year of growth, then buy your male...and feel free to use mojave, butter, or lesser where I listed lesser).
Heck, buy a mojave and a lesser and make BELs
Click to expand...


How controversial a subject is inbreeding in snakes? I'm quite familiar with the subject with regards to canines, and how some utilize it without getting burned while others vehemently oppose it...but snakes I am not. How frequently do you see problems with inbreeding in snakes personally?
 
This is based simply on reading what people have paired over the past couple years and nothing else, but it seems like it is done on a very regular basis, especially with dinkers and recessives. I don't think it's much of an issue unless it causes consistent problems. Again, I'm a small fry in the hobby, but just what I've observed.
 
It can be done a few times without much of an issue...but the problem is that too many people do it. If you buy a sibling pair for breeding, there is a reasonable chance that the person you got them from did, too (and quite possibly the person that he got his breeders from did the same). As far as how many issues I've personally had, that is easy - none...but I have never knowingly bred a sibling pair. Have I purchased sibling pairs? Yes, when I've had to (some sellers won't sell single females)...but then I've followed that by purchasing from other stock, and creating my own pairs.
In the early days of a morph, when there aren't unrelated babies all over the place, and when even hets are crazy expensive, people breed sibling pairs (or other close relations) because they don't have much option; but, when they've been around for as many years as pieds have, and are so commonplace that they've become inexpensive, that excuse goes out the window.
 
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