I think I want to breed....

Well after half a year and of owning my ball python Marshall, I'm ready to get more bps! I would like to take a shot at breeding. I'm thinking a male banana and a female spinner blast. Of course I have questions, and I will have plenty more. But first I would like to know, how much would a proven female spinner blast cost approximately?


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i found a 2300g proven female spinnerblast for $1400.

Have you checked Fauna and Kingsnake to see if you can find any? That would give you an idea.

Proven breeders, especially females, are going to cost you a lot more then lets say a sub adult of the same morph. Are you wanting to breed now? If not why not take a bit of time and get a sub adult and raise it to breeding size? This option may take a little bit of time depending on the size of the animal but IMO is much more rewarding. Either way best of luck :gj:

Greg

sorry, wrong thread. I apologize.

Additionally, if I remember correctly you're pretty young and very new to the hobby. You should be certain your parents are okay with caring for an increased number of animals when you go to college. Even if you think you're going to take them with you, you really can't count on being able to.

One way around that might be to contact the science department of the college you're going to and see if you can host your collection there. Not a guarantee, but sometimes they're cool with it. Most places don't allow pets in dorms though, and there's especially not room for a breeding populations, so you need to have a back up plan in place for if/when it happens.

You do have a pretty nice fire iirc though! One thing I advocate, since the market is really flooded, and EVERYONE wants to "try breeding" absolutely make set goals, and be picky! Be patient, and find the best examples of morphs that you want to breed, plan out what you want to produce, and be ready to spend a little extra for quality. Jumping in blind and feet first is a good way to really screw up being able to do this long term.

Also, did you find out if Marshall was a guy or a girl? For a breeding start up, you generally want to have more females than males, because one male can be spread around, but one female paired with a bunch of males is going to be a grab bag as far are babies produced goes. Females can and will use sperm from any, or all, or NONE of the males they're paired with for the year, so unless you're really good at morph identification, it would be better as a noob to stick with one for sure clutch daddy, and a couple different females for him to play around with. Another rule of thumb is that your males should be the mutigene animals. Same reason for having more females than males, it's economically more efficient to have one male with lots of genes to spread around you set up than one female multigene morph who will only throw one clutch that season.

These are of course, just guidelines and you should do what works best for you. The most important thing is what you're getting out of it is enjoyment and time spent with amazing animals!

I wanted a proven breeder because then there is no chance of the snake being a male or not wanting to breed. I would consider a sub adult though.

I am quite young, but I have my parents full support and also have a really good reptile store near me. He's extremely helpful there. I don't plan on going to college for years, I'd rather just do a 6 month course once I figure out what to do with my life. If however I cannot care for them, I can keep them at my parents house or get a friend to help me out.

Thanks for the comment on Marshall! I honestly wasn't planning on breeding him a whole lot. This is because I cannot be sure of exactly what morph he is. He has the appearance of a fire sure, but who knows what genes he has. He was sold as a male, and he's got big spurs, but I haven't sexed him myself so who knows.

I'm definitely going to take my time on this, I'm in no rush. I still have a ton of research to do, a rack to build, and snakes to buy:)


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If you get snakes from a reputable breeder you really don't run much of a risk of getting a male when they say it's a female or vice versa. Does your reptile store guy have experience in probing BPs? If not, you could look for breeders in your area or even a herp vet (probably wouldn't cost too much) to definitively sex them for you. Plus, once you've been shown how you could do it yourself.

I'd recommend getting a subadult then raising her up. Buying proven breeders that are high-quality morphs is going to be pretty pricey.

Sounds like you got a level head about this and are doing research. Too many people seem to be jumping into breeding. Just remember, don't even start pairing unless you have the money to put into a hatcling rack and incubator (plus good thermostats for both). Not to mention the means to take care of any babies that don't sell