Opinions on a good starting pair?

Hey BP fans, I owned a normal female way back in high school over ten years ago, and gave her away when I went to college to a good friend (who still has her!). Since then, I've cared for a few BPs in semi-rescue situations, since I breed geckos and people consider me the go-to 'reptile girl' for when they need to give up a pet. I've gotten them all feeding properly and sent them on to different homes. My most recent roommate had a nice pastel male, but she had to move out, and her snake went with, and I was surprised that I missed having an easy handleable reptile, since most of my geckos are 'look but don't touch', aside from the cresties. I started to think I'd like to pick up a snake again, so I got thinking about doing a BP side project.

I find albinos to be the most visually striking, so I thought I'd go with that to start, but I was going to wait til my local expo in January to pick one up. However, there's a pinstripe 2012 girl available locally for $175, so I was considering grabbing her and picking up an albino male at the expo. Would albino/pinstripe be a good 'starter' pair? From what I've read, it looks like a recessive/dominant pairing that would give me a good selection of albinos, pinstripe and maybe albino pinstripe, but I'm new to this, so any tips would help. Also, what's considered a good price for either? If I can find a cheaper female at the expo, should I wait?

Definitely do your homework on the genetics aspect of this hobby. Pinstripe x Albino = Zero Albinos

World of Python has a good genetic wizard and great pics of morphs http://www.worldofballpythons.com/

Owal Reptiles is good as well http://www.owalreptiles.com/

Honestly, you should stick to something that is appealing to you not what you can get a good price on. Good luck in your quest I am sure you will pick up some great bps.

Breeding a pinstripe to a visual albino will give you all het albinos, some may be pinstripe and some may not. You will not get any visual albinos. If you are looking to get albino pins, the cheapest way would be to get an albino and a pinstripe het albino.

You are correct that it is a recessive (albino) and co-dominat (pinstripe) trait. To get a visual recessive trait both parents must carry that specific gene to pass on to their offspring.

There are a ton of websites an links to how the genetics work in ball pythons. I will admit it can be a bit confusing at first but just keep reading and asking questions. Also play with the genetic wizard to see what you can make, I waste too much time on there.

Thanks for the info guys, I'm swamped with stuff to read and it's all confusing and sometimes contradictory!

I would buy an albino male and a female pinstripe het albino. That gives you a chances at producing albino pins, albinos, and pins het albino in your first year breeding.

I've been playing around with the genetic wizard (this is a new addiction, thanks a lot) and I see that if I breed a pastel to a pin, I'll get a possibility of a Lemon Blast, higher if I use a super pastel, and if i breed a lesser to a pin, then I could get a KingPin! That's a lot of beautiful morphs from two relatively common starter animals, so I think I'll definitely grab that pinstripe girl. I'd love to breed my own pretty snake, and the market in my area is barren for good stock, so I'll be researching and spending time reading as much as I can.

Right now my plan is just to start with pastel/pinstripe, or super pastel/pin, and add in albino to any het pins. A lesser and a butter are on the buy list as well. :)

It all depends on your budget and when you want to start breeding. Generally, females take 3 years to mature. Males only need one and a half.

I'm pretty familiar with care and gestation/breeding, but the genetics of the morphs is where I'm lacking. I'm not expecting to breed anything right away. ;)

Banana male and GHI female.

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Originally Posted by Timothy

Banana male and GHI female.

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Ha Yeah if he has $30,000 laying around.