Getting started! all advice welcome.

[Fastball]

Hey guy! my name is Ethan and im fairly new to ball pythons. I had bought one from a friend years ago and it had all sort of health problems and i got her back to good health but my wife got pregnant and i had to give her up. She was convinced it would eat the baby. Ive done my research as i get very OCD with things that interest me so i must know all lol! and im figuring on going to a tub. I used to have a tank but the humidity was a pain. In the coming weeks im going to look to buy a ball once my tub is set up properly, i cant wait! My question to all yall is should i start out with a basic morph or maybe go with mutli genes? i have about 500 to spend. ive been thinking about the breeding aspect and would it be best to get more genes in case i do what to breed? any recommendations would be great. My old one was just a normal i had no idea of all these morphs and im fascinated. Also, i want to get from a reptutable breeder but i dont know whos good and whos not. All advice is welcome

[highqualityballz]

Hey guy! my name is Ethan and im fairly new to ball pythons. I had bought one from a friend years ago and it had all sort of health problems and i got her back to good health but my wife got pregnant and i had to give her up. She was convinced it would eat the baby. Ive done my research as i get very OCD with things that interest me so i must know all lol! and im figuring on going to a tub. I used to have a tank but the humidity was a pain. In the coming weeks im going to look to buy a ball once my tub is set up properly, i cant wait! My question to all yall is should i start out with a basic morph or maybe go with mutli genes? i have about 500 to spend. ive been thinking about the breeding aspect and would it be best to get more genes in case i do what to breed? any recommendations would be great. My old one was just a normal i had no idea of all these morphs and im fascinated. Also, i want to get from a reptutable breeder but i dont know whos good and whos not. All advice is welcome

Welcome Ethan! If i was in your shoes i personally get a pied, one of my favorite morphs and are in your price range. Heres a link to get you started. http://www.morphmarket.com/search?q=...y=&layout=grid

[jbzapanda]

Hey Ethan!
I'm fairly new to the bp world, but I am the same with you when it comes to getting an animal. I MUST KNOW ALL! But other than going to Reptile shows in your area as one of the options (this is great because you can speak to breeders and hold the actual animal), I suggest browsing through YouTube videos which is how I came across my banana bp, Jumbi😁 I got mine from William Herbst who is also here on the forum as WmHrbst and his YouTube channel is 46and2reptiles. I totally recommend him. He's a wonderful guy and he helped me with all my questions before I discovered this forum!

Best of luck and Happy Searching!

[BMorrison]

Welcome Ethan, it's all preference can't go wrong with anything that strikes your eye. I love my mojaves, mystic potions, anything Enchi etc I've done a lot of business with Garrick DeMeyer of Royal Constrictor Designs lately and his animals are top notch and he's EXCELLENT to do business with. Happy hunting!


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[Scottywelsh]

Honestly. Get the best set up you can buy with the money you have and then see what morph you can afford with what's left. Better to have a normal bp in a great set up rather than an expensive morph is a poor set up.
I'm not sure if you mentioned you have 500 for everything or just the snake ?
You could get something like a phantom and a mojave and aim for a purple passion. Phantom and mojaves are relatively cheap and i think their stunning. And the purple passion is.
Or if you can afford it. My personal favourite is eather a super pastel axanthic or any pied. Or anything with axanthic for that matter

[Fastball]

haha i have about 500 for the snake. i ordered a bunch of stuff for the snake. i got a tub, heat mat with thermostat, acurite therm with prob, two hides, gonna use papertowel for substrate, bought a soldering iron to make holes to get a good humidity and also just in case bought some mite prevention. let me know if i forgot anything! my ambient room temp is about 78. is that ok? pieds are very cool. my girlfriend disagrees. breeding is really interesting to me because i see some of those snakes are just amazing looking and instead of buying one maybe i could make one some day lol

[Hannahshissyfix]

If you are leaning towards possible breeding then I would get a female first. They take a couple years longer than a male to get up to breeding size/age and in that time the price of a male for the morph you'll want to create should go down. Get what you find austetically pleasing so you're more passionate about it but also consider things like will you have a market to sell the babies to if you breed and are you willing to have your female possibly end up with health issues associated with breeding.

[Scottywelsh]

Just before you replied I was just about to say have you looked into getting a small rack rather than one tub ? Give yourself a little room to expand when you want to start breeding then.
Tub, heat source, thermostat, digital thermometer, digital hygrometer, 2 hides, water bowl and substrate is pretty much everything. I like to have an infrared temp gun aswell because it's soooooo much easier for checking temps throughout, if you have the money for one there really handy
You can get some really nice morphs for 500. But it's going to come down to personal preference and what you want to breed it to.
Have you heard of the Ball Python Genetic Wizard?? It's great to see what you will get by breeding different morphs.

[Fastball]

i havent thought of health issues with breeding... is it common or is that more common when breeding an underweight snake?

[BPGator]

With $500 for a snake you have a wide variety of options. I'd go with what's visually appealing to you as well as having specific genes that can be combined to make even more beautiful snakes. I'm personally in love with the Killer Clown, but no way I'd spend the money to buy one. There's so many options it's ridiculous. I'm sure you've seen it, but just in case, there's a genetic wizard on WOBP so you can see what different genes can create:

http://www.worldofballpythons.com/wizard/

Morph market is also great to see what's out there and get a feel for cost.

Good luck and post a pic of whatever you decide on.


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