What's your Bread & Butter Morph? Most practical parents for small breeding project?

I would like to start breeding ball pythons, and I don't want to grow my collection beyond the parent morphs. In your opinion, what is a parent combo that produces desirable, easy to sell offspring? I'm very tempted to get a pair of Pieds, but fear no one will buy the hatchlings. I've seen hatchling Het Pieds sell for $25, which doesn't even cover the rats. So, maybe something like Bumble Bees might be a better option for me. What do you think?

If you had two pieds as your parents, you wouldn't produce any hets, just Pieds, which shouldn't be terribly difficult to sell. You could also get your hands on a Super of a morph that you really like for a male and a single co-dom female of another gene you liked when mixed with the male, and that way you wouldn't produce any normals to worry about homing. Super Pastel male and a Cinnamon female, for example, you'd get 50% Pewters and 50% Pastels. You might not turn a profit depending on your husbandry practices, but it could be fun and you might break even over the span of a few clutches.

*producing normals to home would be the biggest worry. well said.
*I could have been more clear about the het pied comment, but you got the point.

A super or a pair of Pieds are probably my best bet.

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Originally Posted by BoxOfRain

I would like to start breeding ball pythons, and I don't want to grow my collection beyond the parent morphs. In your opinion, what is a parent combo that produces desirable, easy to sell offspring? I'm very tempted to get a pair of Pieds, but fear no one will buy the hatchlings. I've seen hatchling Het Pieds sell for $25, which doesn't even cover the rats. So, maybe something like Bumble Bees might be a better option for me. What do you think?

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Sounds like you want the reptile equivalent of a puppy mill...

Breed what YOU like, else what is the point?

You will never make a profit as a small time breeder. You'll be lucky to break even in the long run.

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Originally Posted by sho220

Sounds like you want the reptile equivalent of a puppy mill...

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That's an interesting opinion. I would like to tease it out more. I enjoy keeping ball pythons, and I think it would be fun to breed them. I have no interest or ability in having a full snake room, rack, or business. Just a hobby, and breaking even would be fine.

Are you suggesting this is morally wrong?

I would fear that normals might not find good homes, and my hobby would cause suffering. I assume morphs have a better chance at finding better homes.

My dog was adopted and is spayed. Do you think reptiles should not be bred?

Thanks for the thoughts, I value the feedback.

What everyone is saying is it sounds like you are looking at this wrong, instead of "what's going to net me the most cash/sell well," you should be selecting morphs you personally find appealing. Yes, you may lose money on the deal but it should be looked at as a hobby, not a chance to make money.

Pick some morphs you enjoy THEN start looking at which of those morphs will have the most likely chances of selling offspring more easily. Also, choose high quality examples of morphs, even if they cost more and you'll have a much easier time selling the babies.

Edit: So I think you're saying you don't want to produce normals? Get a super of a morph for one of your snakes then. A super fire to a pastel for example, will only produce fires and fireflies. With a super though, it's hard to tell if the snake is a high quality morph so you'd have to see pictures of both parents and see if they were high quality examples.

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Originally Posted by BoxOfRain

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That's an interesting opinion. I would like to tease it out more. I enjoy keeping ball pythons, and I think it would be fun to breed them. I have no interest or ability in having a full snake room, rack, or business. Just a hobby, and breaking even would be fine.

Are you suggesting this is morally wrong?

I would fear that normals might not find good homes, and my hobby would cause suffering. I assume morphs have a better chance at finding better homes.

My dog was adopted and is spayed. Do you think reptiles should not be bred?

Thanks for the thoughts, I value the feedback.

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Your first post referenced $ four or five times. That's where I was going with that...

In the short time I've been doing this, I've seen countless people try to turn Ball Python breeding into a get-rich-quick scheme...and it always ends badly, and often the animals pay the ultimate price.

Your explanation in this post has me doing a 180...and I applaud you for considering what you're going to do with the babies...before they've arrived. Lots of people wait until they have the babies before realizing they can't care for them all.

I apologize for the tone of my first reply.

Good luck with your breeding plans and I wish you the best of luck.

Now to get back on topic...Anything Enchi, Sugar or Lesser will sell easily. :)

I mean, if you were strictly speaking in throwing no normals a super pastel to a spider would be the best bet in bees.

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I think I understand what you're saying. You want your hobby to help pay for itself without having any babies that you end up taking care of for long periods of time because nobody wants them. Is that close? If so I would stick to the lighter and brighter colored morphs. Things like sables or cinnamon's or axanthics are great for ball python aficionados but they're not as well appreciated by your average pet buying public. For instance I've never had trouble selling out of albinos but someone looking for a pet would rather spend 30 bucks on a normal then 100 bucks on a yellowbelly. (interestingly, I usually sell out of normals quicker then anything else but that's mainly due to the low price)

Thanks sho220.
You're right I did reference money too many times. My "cover the rats" comment was a red herring.

Pieds are my favorite, that should be my next snake. Maybe I can replace my vision cages with white boaphiles too.

Thanks

I would get 2 visual pied females and 1 male that was visual pied plus a nice gene like fire, yellowbelly, mohave, black pastel, etc.

I think you are right on the money with a pair of pieds. You will produce nothing but visual pieds and they always sell. One clutch of pieds a year should easliy cover the cost of keeping them. Just remember you will not get a clutch each year with only a pair.