Testing for unknown hets?

I have two normal BP's and I'm thinking about breeding them eventually. How would I test to find out their hets? For example, how many times would I have to breed them, and would I have to breed the female/male with more than one snake?

But from what I've found, I'm guessing that two normals will just produce more normals... I'm not sure, though. Is this right?

unless you bought them from a breeder as a het then there is no likely chance they could be hets.

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Originally Posted by chibi_tama_love

I have two normal BP's and I'm thinking about breeding them eventually. How would I test to find out their hets? For example, how many times would I have to breed them, and would I have to breed the female/male with more than one snake?

But from what I've found, I'm guessing that two normals will just produce more normals... I'm not sure, though. Is this right?

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Two normals will only produce normals. ;)

Assuming that one of your ball pythons is a het but you don't know if it is the male or female....

Year 1: Breed the two normal appearing ball pythons. If one is a het, you would get offspring that have 50% chance of being het. Save all the babies from this breeding and raise to breeding size.

Year 2: Breed a Year 1 male offspring to your original female. If your female is a het, her son is a het, and you hit the 1/4 odds of producing a visible from two hets....you would have a morph. The chances of that happening are pretty slim since you don't know if you actually have the heterozygous form of a trait.

Year 3: Breed your original male to all Year 1 female offspring that are up to size. If you male was the het, any of the daughters are a het, and you hit the odds....then you might have a morph.

.....you would have to repeat this over and over again. If you never had a het in the first place you could spend your life breeding the two and just ending up with normals....

If you are looking to breed and get a morph a cheaper way, buy a het male for the trait that you want. Most het males prices are under $200 and knowing that your male is het will help you get the morph quicker(could do it in three or four years easy)......but hoping for the 1 in a million chance that your normals somehow picked up a trait is kinda pointless.

Hope that helps ;)

Thanks all! I don't know if they have hets at all. I got Lily from a breeder, and she came in a big version of a deli cup. She wan't marked as anything; just female and 30 dollars. :) And I have no idea about the other snake. We're getting him from a friend soon, because they're moving to Japan. :(

I'm glad that I'm not going to be a breeder when I'm older. I'd probably never make it. Everything's so confusing, with so many different morphs and everything. :/

I guess if I'm super duper lucky some morph will come out but that's a really slim chance, I guess.