Suggestions Please on Where to Start!!

[BigIan]

I'm finding myself being sucked into this world of designer Ball Pythons! I'm going to start by getting something like the Reptile Basics Iris Sweaterbox Rack, though I'm open to suggestions on others, as I'm the type of person where 1 of anything is simply not enough and in looking around there's way too many different awesome looking morphs to only own one

I'm wondering where to start. At this point I can't see spending m ore than $500-750 per animal and it was suggested to me that I get 3 single gene females and one nice morph if I think there's a chance that I'm going to breed down the line which is a strong possibility. Now, this sounds like a good idea but I'm reading that you should breed specimens that you're interested in and to my still untrained eye the single gene snakes look so much like your standard Ball.

I like the fact that you can still produce some cool morphs by breeding single gene animals, i.e. bumblebees and blue eyed leucistics, but I'm finding myself drawn to the irregular patters, the yellower morphs, albinos and the Ivory and Pied morphs. I plan on doing my research regarding the genes and the recessive/dominant traits and before I begin to collect and I also plan on getting a rack to keep them in but in the meantime can I get some suggestions on where to start? I think I'll be more interested in the exotic appearances but at the same time I can understand why I was suggested to start with some single gene females.

I don't want to purchase any animals due to their appearance if they aren't going to make sense to breed. To get something that'll make an awesome pet and at the same time a good idea for breeding purposes would be ideal.

I'd love to hear your suggestions, many thanks in advance

[TheSnakeGeek]

definitely start with females. some can take 3-4 years to even breed for you. single gene females are good to start with because they're relatively inexpensive. after you have them grown up you can buy a male that really knocks your socks off and breed him to a few different girls. you said you like pattern changers, so i'd suggest a nice clean spider female. you can get a good one of those for 200-300.

[TheSnakeGeek]

or for around 400 you can get a noce bumblebee female. everyone needs a bumblebee female in their rack.

[TheSnakeGeek]

nice**

[Eric Alan]

The best advice that I can give you is to stay away from the morphs that look like normals to you - they typically aren't good examples of that morph.

There are plenty of single gene morphs available for a GREAT price - butter/lesser, cinnamon, enchi, fire, mojave, pastel, pinstripe, spider, spotnose, vanilla, yellow belly, etc, etc, etc... Good example of these morphs look NOTHING like a normal ball python, and with their powers combined produce many stunning multi-gene animals. Unless it jumps off the page in a lightbulb type moment, just keep looking. I've seen some pastels on here that look better than multi-gene animals because they are screamer examples of what a pastel should look like. Those are the kind of animals that you need in your collection. Great parents = great babies.

Play around A TON on both the WOBP Genetic Wizard (http://www.worldofballpythons.com/wizard/) and the OWAL Genetics Calculator (http://www.owalreptiles.com/genetics.php) and do virtual pairings. Then, search for the results on Kingsnake (http://market.kingsnake.com/index.php?cat=32) or FaunaClassifieds (http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...play.php?f=499) and see if any of the combinations are within your price range. If they are, then congrats! You're one step closer to an even more diverse collection! If not, then congrats! You're one step closer to determining which base morphs you need to produce that combination!

Something else that helped me first starting out were Colin Weaver's articles on breeding from the business side of things (like this one - http://ballpythonbreeder.com/2012/02...thon-breeders/). Not necessarily from the standpoint that I want to turn this hobby into a business, but to help myself make purchase decisions that make the most sense for my breeding plans in the future.

Last, and certainly not least, keep doing exactly what you're doing! This forum is a living, breathing creature full of people around the world that spend way more time thinking about snakes than anyone really wants to know about (if you don't believe me, check out the recent "For giggles, where are you right this second?" thread - http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ht-this-second). Ask a lot of questions - get a lot of answers.

Welcome to the forums!

Eric

[BigIan]

thanks for the suggestions guys, it's much appreciated. I've always liked the look of albinos so between my interest for them and the fact that they can produce some cool morphs would it be pretty safe to purchase one as my first?

I guess I should read up on what gene both parents need to have in order to produce albino morphs... If I have a female albino doesn't the male need a recessive albino gene to produce albino babies?

If anyone is aware of any exceptional single gene females could you please PM me a link?

[Eric Alan]

Recessive Genetics:

• Albino x Albino = All Albino
• Albino x het Albino = 1/2 Albino, 1/2 het Albino
• het Albino x het Albino = 1/4 Albino, 1/2 het Albino, 1/4 normal (visually, you'll actually end up with 3/4 of your babies being 66% possible het Albino - meaning that you won't be able to tell the difference between normals and het Albinos)

Do you mean actual the actual albino gene, or just white snakes in general (like ivorys or leucistics)?

In regards to the single gene animals, use the search function on these forums - especially in the pictures forum - for a gene that interests you (or doesn't interest you). You'll quickly learn which ones get drooled over and which ones get a more "meh" response. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder though, so some things will become more important to you when you see examples of the same morph over and over again.

[BigIan]

this is incredibly frustrating, I've read the Layman’s Crash Course in Ball Python Genetics 3 times now and I have no idea what the hell it means

[boyer.michael.s]

What part of the genetics frustrates you? It really is very simple to understand so you might just be overthinking something. Just ask as many questions as you need to and you will quickly learn the genetics aren't all that hard to understand at all.

[BigIan]

do I have the following correct?

on a recessive gene, for the offspring to show that gene, both parents must posses the gene, albinos for example. You can breed an albino with a regular ball and as long as the regular ball has a recessive albino gene, some offspring can be albino... same with the pied gene.

if either parent possesses a dominant gene it doesn't matter whether the mate possesses the same gene, the offspring will still produce that dominant gene in the offspring guaranteed.

co-dominant gene will produce that gene in the offspring but if both parents possess that same co-dominant gene... here I'm lost. It'll produce a completely different animal than that co-dominant gene? ie, 2 co-dominant yellowbellies can produce an ivory?

if I have this correct, awesome. I still don't understand the 'het' term.

this sucks man, I just can't figure this out...