My First Time Breeding

[zg884]

This is my first time breeding anything. So to get things started, I'm in the process of looking for a female right now. I have just a normal male. My girlfriend wants a pied but they are really hard to find right now. I think i have a general understanding of "het" and a het pied would be fine with me but i want to know is if i get a normal looking pied het and breed it with my normal ball will i produce any that actually look like a pied? How big should both the male and female be before i breed them? What's the best incubator (not much money just so everyone knows)? Is there actually only one time a year that i can breed them or can you trick them by changing the temp of the cage? How long does it take until they hatch, and what do I have to do to the eggs while they are in the incubator? How long do I wait until I feed them for the first time? Any Info would be greatly appreciated.

[LadyOhh]

This is my first time breeding anything. So to get things started, I'm in the process of looking for a female right now. I have just a normal male. My girlfriend wants a pied but they are really hard to find right now. I think i have a general understanding of "het" and a het pied would be fine with me but i want to know is if i get a normal looking pied het and breed it with my normal ball will i produce any that actually look like a pied?

No. You would need to get a het Pied female, breed to your normal, hold back all the babies from that group (All will be 50% possible het for Pied), breed each male back to the original 100% het female, and then prove out which males are actually het for pied to produce a visual pied.

How big should both the male and female be before i breed them?

Depends, but most people go by 700 grams in males, 1200 grams in females or larger.

What's the best incubator (not much money just so everyone knows)?

Again, depends. There are plenty of things out on the market, but a lot of people build their own.

Is there actually only one time a year that i can breed them or can you trick them by changing the temp of the cage?

You can breed year round if you know what you need husbandry wise.

How long does it take until they hatch, and what do I have to do to the eggs while they are in the incubator?

AVG 60 Days, keep the humidity up and heat up.

How long do I wait until I feed them for the first time? Any Info would be greatly appreciated.

Usually after first shed...


All of these Questions are on other threads here on the site. I would suggest doing a search for all of your questions and see what other threads you can pull up and read from.

Welcome and good luck!

[Gloryhound]

If you get a 100% female Het Pied and breed it to a normal you will have all normal looking off spring with each one being a 50% possible het Pied. The good news is by the time you spend the money on a Female Het pied most breeders will throw in a male het pied for free. Then each off spring has a 25% chance of being a pied and any normal looking off spring are 66% possible het pied.

Size and age questions have a lot of different answers and since this is such a touchy topic and I am new to breeding I will leave this up to a more experienced person to answer.

You can "attempt" to breed any time of the year just by playing with temps and such.

Incubators for cheap are normally the ones you make yourself or the herbovator which has mixed results. We went all out and got a nice incubator since we have plans on breeding expensive morphs and the cost of loosing one hi-end morph compared to the cost of a nice incubator more than justifies the cost in my opinion.

I think it takes the eggs 57 to 60 days in the incubator to hatch!

Hope I helped!