Does the gender matter?

[Bassball Fever]

I am very new to reptiles, in fact, I do not own any yet. My daughter brought up Ball Pythons and I have been looking into them. I am sold. It will be a while before I can get any, but that gives me time to research and make sure I get what I want and what I need.

My plan right now (it changes frequently, but this idea has stuck for at least 5 minutes ) is to get 2 and breed them once. I would keep some (or most, or all) of the clutch and see if I could find a breeder to take the rest.

My goal is to have a neat variety of BPs. As of right now (and yes, this changes frequently as well), I am thinking about a Pewter and an Enchi. It looks like there are several cool combinations that could happen from that pair.

Now, for my question. Does it matter which one is the female and which is the male? I have not seen anything other than a male can be paired with more than one female in a breeding season, so the male should have more desirable traits that you want to pass on. In my case, that would not be a concern.

[redshepherd]

The only difference between male/female is that a male can be paired multiple times to different females, females can only have one clutch. So females are more expensive, and it's more economical for the males to have more genes.

I don't think you'll be able to "find a breeder to take the rest", unless you already know someone who would be willing to do that?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

From an investment / business standpoint yes it does matter, always pair a female to a male that is genetically more powerful and not the opposite.

Do not waste a multiple genes female on a single gene male.

[Bassball Fever]

The only difference between male/female is that a male can be paired multiple times to different females, females can only have one clutch. So females are more expensive, and it's more economical for the males to have more genes.

I don't think you'll be able to "find a breeder to take the rest", unless you already know someone who would be willing to do that?

That's what I was thinking, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

As far as finding a breeder, I would be looking for somebody that has the infrastructure in place to sell them. I would not be doing this to make a profit, so if I end up with more than I could handle, I would like to know that they will find good homes. With that in mind, I know that any Normals would be mine, and I'm ok with that. I actually like how they look. But if, for instance, I end up with 2 Frostbites, a breeder can sell one and make some money.

I don't know if breeders would ever do that, but I have a few years to figure that out. Maybe by then I will have learned enough to be confident to sell them myself. I will definitely not breed anything if I cannot make sure that all of the offspring (and the parents) can have a good home.