Thinking about breeding

[kendracandraw]

I know this thread has probably been started a zillion times, but I have some questions about starting up a breeding program.

I've been thinking about this for a while and I've decided to start off with morphs rather than normals. For females I'm thinking a Hypo, Mojave, Fire and Pastel (het Hypo) and for males Pinstripe (het Hypo) or Lesser (het Hypo), and a Fire Spider or Bumblebee.

I am considering building my own racks, and because I'm short I want to build them longer than taller . I've guessed about $1000 startup for the racks and supplies and probably another $1000-$1500 for the snakes, I'll just get the females at first.

Am I starting too big? Should I scale down to 1.2 at first and then add a second group the next year or so?

Also I assume snakes don't take to inbreeding as well as rats and mice do? Would it be best to buy from a couple different breeders?

Any other tips or things I've over looked, especially price wise would be great. Advice is always welcome.

[Meltdown Morphs]

Sounds Good.
long as you have the space to house all of them you're ok with the group your thinking of.You've got a few more years to iron the plan out. I would say just think ;would you be able to handle a 'best case scenario' say all your females lay 10 egg clutches, would you be able to handle all the babies and house them and feed them etc?

And contrary to the beliefs of some, ball pythons tolerate inbreeding, all founding morphs in the hobby were initially proven thru means of inbreeding. usually son to mother or father to daughter, or sib x sib. I believe inbreeding is ok long as its not done for several generations down with no outcrossing.

You could also try to look for multi gene males, I see you want , pinstripes, lessers, fires and bees, you could look into a bumblebee het hypo male, and kingpin, or maybe a firefly.

Also even that little group of snakes you listed would cost more than 1500, the female group alone.

[satomi325]

Am I starting too big? Should I scale down to 1.2 at first and then add a second group the next year or so?

Honestly it's really personal preference. The question is are YOU ready for the responsibility of owning multiple snakes? Can you deal with the number of hatchlings that will come? Do you have places that you cans sell the hatchlings? What about food?

Personally, I plan to only have 1-3 clutches at a time. That's all I can handle right now as a full time student. It's your responsibility as a keeper to know your limit.

Also I assume snakes don't take to inbreeding as well as rats and mice do? Would it be best to buy from a couple different breeders?

Actually reptiles do very will with inbreeding. They don't have the same adverse affects that appear in mammalian inbreeding. Lots of people line breed their animals to prove and carry on certain traits.

I.E. Mother - son breeding to determine a super form

But it certainly doesn't hurt to buy from different breeders. You should buy whatever takes to your liking. All of my snakes are from different breeders.

Any other tips or things I've over looked, especially price wise would be great. Advice is always welcome.

Sounds fine to me. You sound like you're doing your research first, so thats always a good thing.
Like you said, females first! Best advice for a new breeder.

[Annarose15]

I know this thread has probably been started a zillion times, but I have some questions about starting up a breeding program.

I've been thinking about this for a while and I've decided to start off with morphs rather than normals. For females I'm thinking a Hypo, Mojave, Fire and Pastel (het Hypo) and for males Pinstripe (het Hypo) or Lesser (het Hypo), and a Fire Spider or Bumblebee. The only amendment I'd make to your female list is to go ahead with a POG, rather than a pastel het hypo and hypo, and then get a different morph het hypo (pin, for example). Since you're going to wait on the males, just keep brainstorming and don't lock yourself in, but drop the extra $ for at least one to be hypo/het hypo.

I am considering building my own racks, and because I'm short I want to build them longer than taller . I've guessed about $1000 startup for the racks and supplies and probably another $1000-$1500 for the snakes, I'll just get the females at first.

Am I starting too big? Should I scale down to 1.2 at first and then add a second group the next year or so? Since you're starting with just the 4-ish females, that will give you a feel for how easy multiple BPs are to care for. And there's no rule that you have to breed all your females in your first season, either.

Also I assume snakes don't take to inbreeding as well as rats and mice do? Would it be best to buy from a couple different breeders? You can still get unrelated animals from the same breeder, especially since you're looking at a wide range of morphs.

Any other tips or things I've over looked, especially price wise would be great. Advice is always welcome. Don't focus too much on price (although a budget is good), because you don't want to pick up the cheapest BP you find - focus on finding what looks like the BEST example of each morph to you, and then negotiate, do payment plans, etc. The females you listed (sub-ing in my suggestions) will probably run you right at your $1500 expectation

[Mike41793]

10 bps arent that much harder to care for than 1 imo...
Just some extra time cleaning/feeding and more money obviously but still quite managable.

You have 1 male mojave now so i would reccomend one of your females be a butter or lesser. Or like a pastel butter or pastel lesser so that way you can produce BELs. Also id get a hypo female, pin het hypo, and pastel hypo or het hypo. Then for a males just get 1 more. Whatever you get just make sure its hypo. Like pastel hypo.
Then you'll have 2.4 snakes and be well on your way to producing some nice snakes

[Don]

The thing to remember is that breeding ball pythons is really all about waiting. Patience is the most important thing:

You wait for:

• the babies to get old enough to breed
• the first lock, then subsequent locks
• the female to become gravid
• the female to do her prelay shed
• the female to lay her eggs
• the eggs to hatch
• the babies to shed for the first time
• the babies to eat for the first time, second time, third time, etc.
• buyers to pay for their babies
• FedEx to deliver the package to the buyers -> to me, this is the most stressful part because it is completely out of your control.

there really is a lot of waiting involved.

[SlitherinSisters]

If you have the money, you buy quality equipment, and you do your research I don't see why not.

And inbreeding isn't a huge deal, you just don't want to keep doing it over and over for each generation. When you are buying a pair from the same breeder be aware that they may be siblings, the breeder will usually list them as a related pair, but it's best to ask, just to be sure.