What shall I get?

[LocoKen]

Hello, everyone!

Just wondering if anyone can answer a few questions I have. I've been wanting to get into the breeding and raising of BP's for some time now but always had something else going on that kept me from doing it. My son who is 7 y/o has shown an interest in getting a pet and we've both come to the conclusion that a snake would be just fine for him. It's more of a mutual thing because I will be breeding at some point while he just has a pet.

The problem I'm having is deciding where to start. I've been seeing many different price ranges for all the morphs and don't know what I should trust and what I shouldn't. I've got a good idea of what I'd like to get, but what prices are too much and what should I avoid? I hope these aren't too vague of questions to ask (sorry, I'm a noob) but I really don't want to get off on the wrong foot and spend a bunch of money on a snake that is either not worth the money and/or from a "not-so-reputable" breeder. Thanks for any help you can give me. I sincerely appreciate it.

[Mike41793]

What morphs are you considering? Also what sex?

[RoseyReps]

As far as finding reputable breeders goes, there's a good start on the left hand of your screen on this website Also, the BOI (Board of Inquiry) on here and on Faunaclassifieds.com is a good place to see what other people have to say about dealing with breeders. As far as pricing goes, Faunaclassifieds and kingsnake.com are the most used classifieds for BPs, (there's also a section here for it aswell) They are a good place to get a general price range for morphs.

If you are looking at breeding in the future, don't be afraid to pay top of the range price. You get what you pay for most of the time. Always choose quality over price, as it seems that "okay" mommies and daddies produce "okay" babies. "okay" babies are much much harder to sell, especially when you are first getting into the scene. The reptile community is based HEAVILY on reputation and word of mouth.

Expo's are a great way to meet people in the community, and see the snakes up close and personal. You can also find some decent prices there.

Read, read, read, and read some more! There is a HUGE collection of knowledge at your fingertips. This site has caresheets, husbandry, feeding, shedding, medical, breeding, incubation, morphs, and everything else under the BP sun. There are very useful stickies at the top of each of the forum sections. When you've read a boat ton of info, and have more questions, ask! This has been the friendliest and most "newbie friendly" website I have ever seen. I've learned so much from this site and the community in the past 3 months.

Another great website for checking out morphs and combos is www.worldofballpythons.com it has a great morph list and also a very fun, highly addicting genetics calculater

I'm a newbie too, but I hope I've helped a little at least Welcome to BP.net and the reptile world!

[LocoKen]

What morphs are you considering? Also what sex?

I'm particularly interested in the Spiders, Pastels, Certain Albino's, Bumble Bee's, Pied's, anything that is black/white, you get the picture. And as far as sex, I guess I don't know what I would want/need in each morph to get the babies I would want yet. I have been experimenting with different morphs on worldofballpythons.com so I can get an idea of what i'll get, but still need to read up on what would be better in each morph. I don't understand all the nomenclature yet that is associated with the BP world so I'm pacing myself. But that's what I'll probably start with at least. What are your thoughts?

[mr.spooky]

If your buying a young one, I would say to start off with a female of the morph of your choice. They take longer to grow for breeding purposes.
spooky

[LocoKen]

As far as finding reputable breeders goes, there's a good start on the left hand of your screen on this website Also, the BOI (Board of Inquiry) on here and on Faunaclassifieds.com is a good place to see what other people have to say about dealing with breeders. As far as pricing goes, Faunaclassifieds and kingsnake.com are the most used classifieds for BPs, (there's also a section here for it aswell) They are a good place to get a general price range for morphs.

If you are looking at breeding in the future, don't be afraid to pay top of the range price. You get what you pay for most of the time. Always choose quality over price, as it seems that "okay" mommies and daddies produce "okay" babies. "okay" babies are much much harder to sell, especially when you are first getting into the scene. The reptile community is based HEAVILY on reputation and word of mouth.

Expo's are a great way to meet people in the community, and see the snakes up close and personal. You can also find some decent prices there.

Read, read, read, and read some more! There is a HUGE collection of knowledge at your fingertips. This site has caresheets, husbandry, feeding, shedding, medical, breeding, incubation, morphs, and everything else under the BP sun. There are very useful stickies at the top of each of the forum sections. When you've read a boat ton of info, and have more questions, ask! This has been the friendliest and most "newbie friendly" website I have ever seen. I've learned so much from this site and the community in the past 3 months.

Another great website for checking out morphs and combos is www.worldofballpythons.com it has a great morph list and also a very fun, highly addicting genetics calculater

I'm a newbie too, but I hope I've helped a little at least Welcome to BP.net and the reptile world!

Thank you, Tiffany for all the wonderful information! I'm glad I found this place as the atmosphere that I'm seeing is just what you've described, friendly and informative. I never thought I would have this much fun looking and reading about snakes, but it is addicting. And yes, I did check out the worldofballpythons.com site you mentioned and also found that addicting as well. Great information here and too much of it, I might add for someone like me (Noob)! Regardless, I'm sure I've stumbled upon the best place for info and I greatly appreciate the help. Thanks again! I will be checking out the places you've mentioned and hope to glean more understanding of these awesome creatures!

- - - Updated - - -

If your buying a young one, I would say to start off with a female of the morph of your choice. They take longer to grow for breeding purposes.
spooky

Is it a common practice to not use normals to breed with because you will get some from breeding morphs anyway, or could you use a normal male and breed it with say a spider female and get good morphs out of them? Obviously I'm not too sure on how this all works so forgive me for the noob questioning.

[PitOnTheProwl]

You really can breed what you want.
Most of us started off with males and then the wait time was killer on the females.
A male can be ready to go in under a year BUT a female can take two to three years before they are ready to give it a go
I took a little short-cut and got some normal big girls to start with after I realized I did want to breed.

Its all about what you want to start with and what you want to make.

What area are you located in?
You might have some small breeders around you that can be close by for purchases or help.

[RSSchmidt]

If I were you, I would look at how much money you have to spend on just the snakes portion of getting set up. I would put 70% of that money towards as many adult normal females you can get and the remaining 30% towards 1 adult morph male. This was the best advice that I have ever received because you will start producing now!!! Keep the hatchlings you want to grow up to breeders still using the normals for the next 2 -3 seasons while your hatchlings gain weight. Then as you earn more money from selling the other hatchlings you can invest in quality morphs eventually replacing your normal females with morph females either from your own produced hatchlings (which have now grown), or by buying your desired morphs from your profits of selling the adult normal females and your unwanted hatchlings. Also know that you need to have good equipment, and that is also a significant part of the budget. Make sense?

[RoseyReps]

From what I've seen, people tend to start with a female morph they like (Say...a little pastel girl) then in a year - year and a half they get a morph male (usually of higher or equal quality) like a spider, or bumblebee / lesserbee / whateverbee. Then in another year they *should* be ready to breed.

Now...as for normals, it's the normal females that you see people breed with usually. Say you have a bumblebee boy, and a pastel girl. While your girl only has the potential of getting eggs from one guy (not going to even get into double sired wierdness here...) your guy can get it on with multiple girls. A way to increase production / profit is getting a couple solid big normal girls to hatch out some morphs from your special guy. (bee x normal = 25% normal, 25% spider, 25% pastel, 25% bee according to wobp wizard) You don't see male normals being bred to morph females usually, because it seems like a waste of potential. Advice I have read is always breed a genetically superior male, with genetically equal or lower females. Never the other way around. More bang for your buck (generally, with MOST morphs, females run more expensive. That paired with the 1 male can mate multiple females makes this piece of advice make sense to me)

That being said, I think starting slow would be of more benefit. (first year you are able to breed only doing one clutch) But that is just my opinion. Could you jump in head first and grab a breeder size female and yearling male and shoot for next year production? Sure. Is that a good idea for someone just starting out? Probably not. Getting those 3 years of husbandry under your belt, plus the initial knowledge of caring for a hatchling / raising to adult is knowledge you'll want before your up to you ears in hatchlings.

This is the route I'm taking for my eventual breeding. Everyone has their own ideas and opinions but I think going slow is going to benefit me and my snakes the most down the road. Once I have my first successful clutch, then I'll probably pick up a few adult normal girls for the next season as well as another morph project.

You mention pieds and albino's, just so you know, those are reccessive genes, which means both mom and dad need to carry the gene to make visual pieds / albino babies (albino x albino, albino x het albino, or het albino x het albino) With co-dom morphs (spiders, pastels) you only need one parent to have the genes to see visual babies.

[Mike41793]

Whats your price range for just the snakes? Keep in mind youll need a rack, t-stat, hides, waterbowls, temp gun etc...