thoughts on starting breeding

ive had a male normal BP for about 8 months now, will be moving into a bigger place next year or so and kicking around the idea of breeding.

from what i gather, male normals are just bout the worst thing to have for breeding lol. would getting a female morph be worth it? any suggestions to a cheap one?

also whats the reality on 'making dates' with other peoples snakes and getting one or more of the babies? is there much chance anyone would want to with a plain normal? where would one find these people anyway?

but yea just bored and dreaming mostly haha

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Originally Posted by eternalfrost

from what i gather, male normals are just bout the worst thing to have for breeding lol.

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See this is why i have so many snakes! No one loves the normal males!! What a shame!! I often wonder where they all go every year? I through normal males on codoms to make more codoms.. I feel sorry for those guys lol!

I agree with Jas' wonderings about where all of the normals go to.... some normals are really beautiful! To answer your question about less expensive morphs, I would recommend a pretty pastel or a mojave; you can't go wrong with those two...IMO. :P

Hi,

I love my normal male. :snake:


dr del

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Originally Posted by dr del

Hi,

I love my normal male. :snake:


dr del

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I have an absolutely phenominal male normal. Definately try a codom mix.

Chuck:gj:

i also love mine dont get me wrong! so beautiful especially after a shed! really rich black and gold with tiny white highlights up from the belly. i honestly dont see wahts so different about a huge number of 'morphs' out there, like the sites with 50 or so morphs listed.

im guessing codom = codominant? what exactly does that mean? its when two dominant traits mix together yes? what significance does that have here? sry know almost zip about genetics :confused:

i dont have any normal males...

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Originally Posted by eternalfrost

im guessing codom = codominant? what exactly does that mean? its when two dominant traits mix together yes? what significance does that have here? sry know almost zip about genetics :confused:

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Let see if I can simplify this....

Co-dom= A gene that will show up or not. The genes dont hide, like recessive genes (albino, pied, etc)

Ex: A Pastel(Co-Dom) + Normal = Both normal and pastel babies
An Albino(recessive) + Normal = All 100% het for albino (all normal looking snakes that carry the albino gene)

Hope that helps..

Heres a great site for learing bout balls
http://www.ballpython.ca/gallery/breeding.html

I'm definitely not a genetics expert but I think I can help a little.

The co-doms like mojaves, pastels, y.b.'s, lessers, cinny's, etc are morphs in which the gene that causes the morph can be combined with itself to produce a different morph. For example breeding two mojaves will produce mojaves and blue eyes leucistics which contain the mojave gene from both mom and dad. The mojaves out of a mojaveXmojave cross have only recieves one mojave allele, either moms or dads. Remember, a mojaveXmojave cross will yield 25% normals as well. The blue eyes leucistics made from mojaves, (you can make them from a number of morphs including butters and lessers as well) when bred to a normal will only produce mojaves. The mojaves that come out a mojaveXmojave mix only have one mojave gene while the blue eyed leucistic has 2 "mojave" genes. Don't mix this up with a dominant morph in which two of the genes (homozygous form) will still only produce the original morph, aka there is no "super form." I'm sure there are others , but the spider is definitely the most common. In other words breeding two spiders will still only make spiders and normals. When the spider gene combines with another spider gene, it does not change the spider look. Hope this helps a little for now, but I'd suggest reading up on it. There are ALOT of articles to read if you look around, most big breeders have a genetics page on their website. I'm going attach the one from NERDS site, as I think it's a good start. Just scroll to the bottom of the page, there are 4 articles increasing in complextiy as you go. check em out.

http://www.newenglandreptile.com/care.html

And to get back on topic. I bring males to a pet store by me one at a time so they don't stack them in the same tank. This way some little kid like I was can have his first bp and the snake gets a good home with a youthful, enthusiastic keeper. I'm a firm believer that a snake is GREAT pet for kids esp male bp's. Mostly because they require less day to day care than say a hamster. But maybe thats just me.... :) Eternal if I were you I'd start looking to grab a female or two. If you decide you don't want to breed your normal later, you can always find adult males for sale. He'll be useful for breeding as well as being you for fun snake. Use him to make the younger males jealous and it'll push them to breed, male-male combat and "sperm-swapping". Have fun! :gj: