I am so confused about breeding morphs...

[blueberrypancakes]

I dont really have any interest in breeding, just in having a pet or a few... but just for the sake of satisfying my curiosity... well, actually I dont even know where to start. Where does it start? If you are a breeder, what was your first morph and how did it come to be?

[seang89]

Most if not all morphs originated from the wild at some point in time. People imported bags of ball pythons from Africa and noticed some where visually different. These snakes where bred by whomever had acquired them to other ball pythons to see if it was genetic. So thats how it starts.

Now you've got 3 different types of genetic mutations. This tells you how a snake passes its certain mutations along into its offspring and If it has a Super form.
Recessive - Albinos, Genetic stripes, Pied
Dominant - Spider, Pinstripe, Just some examples.
Co-Dominant - Pastel, Fire, YellowBelly

I started off with a normal female about 6 years ago. I recently wanted to get into breeding, So I went and purchased a Pastel male and Lesser male to breed with. If you are talking about making(finding) your own very first morph, it isn't that simple. You have to breed something for many generations to prove something is genetic. Either recessive or Dom/Co-dom.

There are also alot of combinations within the snakes that are already proven genetic, that haven't been made yet. So you could be the first to produce a specific combo.


Hope this helps.

[Homegrownscales]

I had just started with a Pastel male and a normal female. I was really intrigued alteady with breeding from my breeding leos and other geckos. From there I fell in love with alot of The other morphs and I slowly gained my wonderful collection.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

[ScubaDiver007]

WOW.. Nice question..

For me it started with a Pastel then an albino, then a pied, then then then .. wow.. you can see my signature box..

for me its a hobby.. if i can make some money in order to pay myself back or buy some more cool stuff i will.

Fun Fun Fun and addicting.

Richie

[Mohegan]

Started with albino ball pythons for me, from a gorgeous high-contrast female I bought from Ben Siegel years ago. I've never been too nuts about albinos, but that girl always caught everyone's attention. Just went on from there. I'm sure you could find lots of other great info in the breeding subforum here!

[blueberrypancakes]

well, actually what I meant was what was the first visible traits you saw... in your own babies... I guess... geez, I dunno. thats the thing, I don't even know where to start questions or researching. how does one start to breed morphs? You get one of something and another of something else and see what happens?
i didn't realize there was a breeding forum, i'll have to check that out! thanks!

[Mohegan]

Do some googling - breeding morphs is all about genetics. Learn what heterozygous (het) and homozygous means. Familiarize yourself with the terms dominant, recessive, co-dom, etc., and learn which morphs are what.

For example, pastel is a dominant trait. If you crossed it with a normal ball python, you would get 50% pastel babies and 50% het for pastel babies.

It's about math and selective breeding

[Slashmaster]

My first morph was an albino. I have ALWAYS loved that coloration.

Markus Jayne has a gorgeously illustrated example of genetics:
http://www.ballpython.ca/genetics.html

[SlitherinSisters]

My first morph was a pastel male, and it kind of snowballed from there!

[mainbutter]

Our first ball python morphs (and only to date) are a Pastel Orange Ghost and a Pastel Het Orange Ghost.

It took us a few years of keeping herps after college before we decided to pick up a BP morph project. My gf decided she really was interested in a SPOG project, so we just waited a good 5 or 6 months until we came across the animals we wanted.

My first 'morph' snake was in fact my FIRST snake ever, an amel corn snake 17 years ago. Never bred it.

As for 'where to start out'? Well the first thing you have to do is learn to take care of these animals. I'd heartily suggest reading up on their care, and when you've prepared a home for a new animal, go shopping for one. There's nothing wrong with buying a morph with no intention of breeding it, and just having a beautiful animal to show off. If that's the case, shop for a male morph, as they tend to be less pricey than a female who looks very similar. If you think you might want to breed sometime down the road, I'd suggest getting a female, as they take longer to get up to size, and you're going to need one anyways.

In the end, the best place to start out is just finding an eye-appealing animal that excites you and learn to take care of it