First yr breeding

[shawnmichal]

This will be my first yr breeding balls. I have been breeding corns and rat snakes but finally have decided to go with balls as well. I don't have much to breed this yr. I have a super pastel male and normal female, a pastel male and normal female and a het pied male (gtn next mo..proven breeder) and a female ph pied/albino. I also have a spider male but have heard its not good to breed them because of the wobble gene they can carry. I will have more pairs in the next couple of yrs. I have in my males.. Enchi, lesser, yellow belly, pastel, super pastel, het albino, het tsk axanthic/albino, spider and Mohave. In my females I have 3 normals, normal ph pied/albino, 2 het tsk axanthic/albino, het albino, lesser, cinny, and pastel.
I need all the hints and tips u guys can throw at me.
Thanks!

[coldbloodaddict]

I would hold off...There is no shortage of Pastels.

Also no reason to breed a Pastel if you have a Super Pastel...

Is the female poss het Alb/Pied ready to breed?

[Daigga]

There is no possible carrying of the wobble gene, it's always present in spiders, champagnes, womas, and I think some others. It isn't always noticable, and the degree to which it's present doesn't seem to have any effect on how badly the offspring are affected by it. If you like the look of spider ball pythons, don't let the wobble stop you from pursuing it. It's incredibly rare for a snake to have a wobble bad enough to cause real problems (my lesser bee is quite the train wreck of a wobbler, but he eats and breeds just fine). If you just really don't want to deal with the wobble, you can sell him off to fund some stronger genetics.

You also have a lot of males compared to how many females (9 males for 10 females if I counted right?). I usually don't criticize people's choice of what to put in their collections, but the genetics you have aren't very strong. you would be best selling the pastel male (you don't need him, you have a super pastel male) and the het albino boy to buy a visual recessive albino or axanthic. You could get a snow and sell off the het axanthic/albino as well. You don't need a male for every female.

The females I'm less opinionated on, but I don't feel right telling you to sell off the girls (even though there isn't a whole lot of genetic strength behind them, either). I can tell you like the look of those recessive mutations, but starting off with a collection made up half of hets isn't the direction I would have chosen to go.

A few questions; how many of these females are up to breeding size or close? What are you ultimately trying to produce?

I'm sorry if I come off sounding critical, in the end this is your collection and I can only offer my opinion.