Curious

I'm just wondering who among the folks that frequent this forum have morphs or hets? Or plans to get any?

I saw the poll about choosing a favorite morph...I couldn't do that. The first time I saw a pic of a pied in The Ball Python Manual, I gasped. I've loved them ever since. But I also love clowns and caramel-albinos. So I think...Ok...I've got three favorites....but oh yeah, there's the genetic stripes, the spiders, mojaves....etc etc

My husband shocked me one day by telling me that after he retires from the Air Force (and all the kids are much older! LOL) and we move into a permanent home somewhere...he'll let me have a whole room for whatever breeding projects I'd like to pursue! I have no idea what the bp market will be like by the time I get to that point (anywhere from 6-12 years from now, depending on how his career goes) but I do know it'll be agonizing trying to decide where to start!

So...what are your morph dreams?

I don't have any morphs right now, but I do have a pair of het albino ball pythons. I am also in the process of getting an Axanthic bp. I don't really like this particular morph, but it is the genetic key to producing snows. I am also going to be getting into clowns, mojaves, pastels (to produce super pastels), and genetic stripes. I like piebalds as well, but those will probably come at a later date, as I have my mind set. :) I know others here have hets, and a I'm sure there are a couple morphs lying around as well, lol..

Jennifer

My roommate and I invested in a possible het piebald bp because piebalds are a high-dollar morph and her favorite. I have an opportunity now to get a possible het orange ghost and I'm thinking I may do it because it's too good an opportunity to pass up and because I have a particular fondness for the ghosts. Other morphs I'd particularly like to get into include genetic stripes, patternless, snowball, leucistic, and platinum. Yeah, I know I'd better save my pennies. Still, with some careful planning and investing, some of that might just be do-able.

We have a few... :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:

Personally I can't wait to see a Desert Ghost Spider or a Coral Glow Bumblebee.

K

I only have norms, the best of them all :)

I do have a high gold, but thats simply a normal variant. If they produced high gold-reduced pattern- black back balls as a genetic line I'd be so happy. IMO, that'd be the best.

HMMM, KLG in NH with a bunch of morphs. Sounds like NERDs. :lol:

NERD? As in the music group with that Pharell guy?

I'm doing the possible het route but have yet to produce any viable morphs (had two kinked dead albinos last year - incubation problems I'm thinking).

I have a 25% chance het stripe that's about 1,330 gram that I'm hopping to get to 1,500 grams in the next few weeks and breed back to her 50% chance het father. I also have three 25% chance het pied females that are big enough to try breeding to a 50% chance het pied male. I hope to start projects with breeder sized possible het clown and caramel males this year as well as a 100% het ghost (I know, should have bought a possible het ghost but the price was just too good on the 100% ;).

Randy, I don't suppose your 100% het ghost is female? I guess that would just be too much to ask. ;)

How are you doing your incubation? It seems it's almost a tossup deciding between maternal incubation and commercial incubators. Do you think the problem was too much variation in your temps, not enough humidity, or what? At least you know that pair is capable of producing albinos, so if one of them was a poss het it's not anymore. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KLG

We have a few... :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:

Personally I can't wait to see a Desert Ghost Spider or a Coral Glow Bumblebee.

K

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:) I figured you'd have a morph or two in your pocket! Those sound like beautiful combinations...are ya'll working on creating those specifically? Any other surprises that might hatch that year that you're at liberty to discuss??? I'm always browsing your site to see what's new!

Randy, good luck with all your poss.hets! Hopefully you'll get some live albinos next time around. I hear it can be difficult to get the hang of successfully breeding these guys, despite their willingness to copulate in captivity. How soon before you can start proving out any of the other hets?

I did try maternal incubation on one clutch for the first time last year and all of those babies came out fine.

The kinked babies where in a home built refrigerator incubator with a proportional thermostat and a small fan. Clutches that overlapped their incubation slightly on both sides hatched fine in the same incubator so I'm wondering if they got too hot slightly before being laid (I'm told that they are well started at laying). The other possibility I can think of is that as some of the eggs in the clutch went bad early on (quite possibly infertile, I didn't candle them) on advise I tried to save them with foot fungus powder and perhaps the foot powder caused the deformities. I don't know why I didn't think to separate the good eggs first

With those albino babies both parents where possible hets (66% X 50%). After loosing the albino babies I sold the proven het mother to fund another project. However I have three of her sisters so hopefully one of them will prove this year (although I may only breed one of them to the now proven albino het male as I have other projects for the other two and a 25% chance het albino girl I purchased).

The new het ghost is a male, wouldn't want to spring for anything expensive ;) I did have a chance to buy a screamer 1,000 gram female ghost for $800 right before NERD started coming out with the cool ghost crosses and they went back up in price so now I’m stuck with the long slow road.

I have a shot at proving out possible hets for both stripe and pied this year. Most of the 25% chance het daughters are in the 1,300 - 1,400 gram range so it's a little iffy on even getting eggs but I'll certainly try.