How often you guys get a new ball python

Hi guys, I am still kind of new to Ball python. I got my first ball python(single gene spider) on June 2021 and I realise I can't stop myself from buying new BP. A week ago I bought another BP (pastel calico). Then when I saw a GHI pastel, I feel like want to bring it back too 🤣, am I getting too fast at buying new snakes?

How a bout you guys, how often you guys buy new snakes?

I only have one Ball as I like having a diverse collection. My collection wasn't really planned and really just kinda happened. No set timeline of anything. Just bought things I wanted as I ran across them. Most recently I've added 5 snakes since May. I had a few I wanted and they just kinda popped up one after the other. Now I consider myself done at 14. I told the wife there is just one more that I want if I run across it. That's a Giant Madagascar Hognose. With that I would be done for real...... Or is that for now? One or the other.

I don't know your history with reptiles but if you are new to them I would consider waiting on the GHI. Especially if you just have growing babies right now. Ball pythons can be notoriously fussy about food and once some males reach maturity that can be a right of passage for some owners. I almost cried when my original male went on his first real hunger strike and was on month 6 without a meal.
If you do have experience, unfortunately they can be like potato chips and it can be hard to stop. lol


I managed to stave off the obsession for a bit....
I started out with two hatchlings 21 years ago. I still have my first male. Unfortunately, I had a sudden move cross country not long after getting the pair and the female had stressed and developed a bacterial infection I lost her to not long after.
(Intermission included a good number of leopard geckos keeping me busy)
3 years ago, I bought my next ball python.... and had two rescues dropped in my lap that same week.
2 years ago, I purchased another pair.
I just hatched 4 last month (though these boys will get rehomed eventually), and purchased another earlier this week.
Now I'm already scheming what I hope I hatch out / hold back next season and what I might look to purchase next year. :rolleye2:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Armiyana

I don't know your history with reptiles but if you are new to them I would consider waiting on the GHI. Especially if you just have growing babies right now. Ball pythons can be notoriously fussy about food and once some males reach maturity that can be a right of passage for some owners. I almost cried when my original male went on his first real hunger strike and was on month 6 without a meal.
If you do have experience, unfortunately they can be like potato chips and it can be hard to stop. lol


I managed to stave off the obsession for a bit....
I started out with two hatchlings 21 years ago. I still have my first male. Unfortunately, I had a sudden move cross country not long after getting the pair and the female had stressed and developed a bacterial infection I lost her to not long after.
(Intermission included a good number of leopard geckos keeping me busy)
3 years ago, I bought my next ball python.... and had two rescues dropped in my lap that same week.
2 years ago, I purchased another pair.
I just hatched 4 last month (though these boys will get rehomed eventually), and purchased another earlier this week.
Now I'm already scheming what I hope I hatch out / hold back next season and what I might look to purchase next year. :rolleye2:

---

My gf told me to wait also, but what I thought is, i just bought 1 male 1 female, need to wait 2 to 3 years before i can actually breed them, after this 3 years, i will only get 1 clutch of egg, thats why i am thinking, should i get another female, so that after 3 years, i can actually have 2 clutches of eggs(if i able to breed them successfully). Before I get into ball python, I had done my research that some ball pythons will fast for a certain period once they reach maturity and other common issue met by ball python keepers and breeders.

anyhow, thanks for ur advice. I will think twice before getting the GHI Pastel

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hannya

My gf told me to wait also, but what I thought is, i just bought 1 male 1 female, need to wait 2 to 3 years before i can actually breed them, after this 3 years, i will only get 1 clutch of egg, thats why i am thinking, should i get another female, so that after 3 years, i can actually have 2 clutches of eggs(if i able to breed them successfully). Before I get into ball python, I had done my research that some ball pythons will fast for a certain period once they reach maturity and other common issue met by ball python keepers and breeders.

anyhow, thanks for ur advice. I will think twice before getting the GHI Pastel

---

If you are heavily considering breeding, that's even more reason to slow down. If you do not take some time to really learn about the genetics before you start buying more snakes, you are going to kick yourself later. If you just start buying snakes that you like the look of, when it comes time to breed, you are not going to have great success, and then when you finally do understand which types of morphs you should be pairing, all your space will be filled and you can't get which ones you need to make your projects work how you want. 95% of the time, people that decide to breed don't regret not purchasing snakes earlier, they regret not purchasing the RIGHT snakes and having a large collection of snakes they will never breed because something else makes a lot more sense to meeting their goals.

If you really, really, really want more right now, get all females. It's still going to limit you in the long run, but at least you CAN get one or two expensive powerhouse males later on and still get really cool babies no matter what the females are. You can get a male from hatchling to breeding weight pretty darn quickly without sacrificing health if you do it correctly. Females take a lot longer to hit safe breeding size. I would still limit purchases of even females as much as you can stomach.

I don't have any kind of limit on how often I buy snakes, but I do have some rules for myself. I have big spreadsheet full of project ideas, and have the rough order planned out for what I will be buying, including equipment. Things sit on that list for a bare minimum of a year before I take the plunge so I have to time really think things through and decide if I like some other project better. Some snakes might jump from middle of the list to the front if I find a really good deal (like an adult proven female for sale with the genes I want for the roughly the same price as a hatchling for example). I keep a pretty decent amount of money set aside for rare snakes that are hard to find and deals, which is how I was able to cough up the money for my pure Kalatoa retics when Andrew decided to put a 1.1 pair of holdbacks up for sale.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nikkubus

If you are heavily considering breeding, that's even more reason to slow down. If you do not take some time to really learn about the genetics before you start buying more snakes, you are going to kick yourself later. If you just start buying snakes that you like the look of, when it comes time to breed, you are not going to have great success, and then when you finally do understand which types of morphs you should be pairing, all your space will be filled and you can't get which ones you need to make your projects work how you want. 95% of the time, people that decide to breed don't regret not purchasing snakes earlier, they regret not purchasing the RIGHT snakes and having a large collection of snakes they will never breed because something else makes a lot more sense to meeting their goals.

If you really, really, really want more right now, get all females. It's still going to limit you in the long run, but at least you CAN get one or two expensive powerhouse males later on and still get really cool babies no matter what the females are. You can get a male from hatchling to breeding weight pretty darn quickly without sacrificing health if you do it correctly. Females take a lot longer to hit safe breeding size. I would still limit purchases of even females as much as you can stomach.

I don't have any kind of limit on how often I buy snakes, but I do have some rules for myself. I have big spreadsheet full of project ideas, and have the rough order planned out for what I will be buying, including equipment. Things sit on that list for a bare minimum of a year before I take the plunge so I have to time really think things through and decide if I like some other project better. Some snakes might jump from middle of the list to the front if I find a really good deal (like an adult proven female for sale with the genes I want for the roughly the same price as a hatchling for example). I keep a pretty decent amount of money set aside for rare snakes that are hard to find and deals, which is how I was able to cough up the money for my pure Kalatoa retics when Andrew decided to put a 1.1 pair of holdbacks up for sale.

---

I total agree with this, i got my target list for my breeding plan, my first target is a CaliBee and my second target is a GHI Mojave, i bought myself a 0.1 spider, and a 1.0 pastel calico(i know is kind of too early to get the male, but in my country, calico just too rare to get 1, so when i saw one of the breeder come out with calico, i straight away take it). Consider the morphs i need for my first target (CaliBee) already completed, so i thinking to proceed with my second target (GHI Mojave). recently I saw 1 of the breeder here, got a GHI Pastel hatchling, thats why i am thinking whether should I get it. Then when the GHI Pastel almost reach mature, I will start to look for a super mojave to pair with the GHI Pastel. So, for the worst scenario, the result will be atleast all mojave with no normal. This is my thought of breeding plan, pls give more advice if my plan has anything wrong or can be improve. I am starting from 0, I never bought any adult snakes just to breed them, for me, I prefer to keep the snakes from small, until adult, it takes few years ( 2 to 3 years for the female to mature), thats why i dont want to waste the 2 to 3 years time, just to take care of 2 snakes, and get only 1 clutch, might as well use the 2 to 3 years time, take really good care of at least 3 snakes(2 female and 1 male) and get 2 clutches of eggs ( i know breeding not just put both male and female together, there are still a lot to learn). Since I had a breeding plan, does that mean, i can/should get the GHI Pastel ?

Things certainly are moving fast for the OP. Started with how often do y'all get snakes to the planning and development of a breeding program and business.


What country you in OP?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hannya

I total agree with this, i got my target list for my breeding plan, my first target is a CaliBee and my second target is a GHI Mojave, i bought myself a 0.1 spider, and a 1.0 pastel calico(i know is kind of too early to get the male, but in my country, calico just too rare to get 1, so when i saw one of the breeder come out with calico, i straight away take it). Consider the morphs i need for my first target (CaliBee) already completed, so i thinking to proceed with my second target (GHI Mojave). recently I saw 1 of the breeder here, got a GHI Pastel hatchling, thats why i am thinking whether should I get it. Then when the GHI Pastel almost reach mature, I will start to look for a super mojave to pair with the GHI Pastel. So, for the worst scenario, the result will be atleast all mojave with no normal. This is my thought of breeding plan, pls give more advice if my plan has anything wrong or can be improve. I am starting from 0, I never bought any adult snakes just to breed them, for me, I prefer to keep the snakes from small, until adult, it takes few years ( 2 to 3 years for the female to mature), thats why i dont want to waste the 2 to 3 years time, just to take care of 2 snakes, and get only 1 clutch, might as well use the 2 to 3 years time, take really good care of at least 3 snakes(2 female and 1 male) and get 2 clutches of eggs ( i know breeding not just put both male and female together, there are still a lot to learn). Since I had a breeding plan, does that mean, i can/should get the GHI Pastel ?

---

IMHO, aiming for 2-3 incomplete dominant combos with mostly genes that have been around for a long time is a bad idea. There are already plenty of CaliBees and GHI Mojaves in the world, not to say a few more would hurt necessarily, but these should be bi-products of a project that is trying to accomplish something new or refined in some way. Every project I am working on with BPs has an end goal that is something that has never been produced. You also want to limit the amount of Normals and common single morph animals you produce as much as you possibly can as a new breeder because they can be really tough to sell. IDing some combos is really tough for a new breeder too, can you ID the difference between a CaliBee and a Bee reliably? How many CaliBees and Calico Spiders are you going to have to sell as "possible Calico" because you can't tell for sure? There are a ton of little things like this that can really put a wrench in your gears getting yourself established.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KMG

Things certainly are moving fast for the OP. Started with how often do y'all get snakes to the planning and development of a breeding program and business.

---

It's possible they were reading and planning long before they actually got their first one, but either way, there is definitely some things that are different learning from practice vs reading and watching youtube, so it's best to slow down on the purchases.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nikkubus

IMHO, aiming for 2-3 incomplete dominant combos with mostly genes that have been around for a long time is a bad idea. There are already plenty of CaliBees and GHI Mojaves in the world, not to say a few more would hurt necessarily, but these should be bi-products of a project that is trying to accomplish something new or refined in some way. Every project I am working on with BPs has an end goal that is something that has never been produced. You also want to limit the amount of Normals and common single morph animals you produce as much as you possibly can as a new breeder because they can be really tough to sell. IDing some combos is really tough for a new breeder too, can you ID the difference between a CaliBee and a Bee reliably? How many CaliBees and Calico Spiders are you going to have to sell as "possible Calico" because you can't tell for sure? There are a ton of little things like this that can really put a wrench in your gears getting yourself established.



It's possible they were reading and planning long before they actually got their first one, but either way, there is definitely some things that are different learning from practice vs reading and watching youtube, so it's best to slow down on the purchases.

---

I believe there will quite a big different in ball python market in every country, in my country(Malaysia), a single gene GHI can be sell for RM1800 which around 430USD, and a female GHI Mojave can cost RM3500 which around 830USD, same thing go with CaliBee, there is a breeder in my country who produce really really high quality( clean and high white) CaliBee, he sell for around RM4.5k - RM5.5k (1070USD - 1300USD), so I guess my plan to make these 2 combo, is still quite profitable. Even in the future, price of these combo might drop drastically, but still I want to make these combo as these 2 combo ( CaliBee & GHI Mojave) are my favourite, more than any other morph. I want to start breeding BP is because of my interest in BP and the money i earn from breed is used to maintain my hobby, not to maintain my living, thats why, I am not too worry about which morph will hold the value or vice versa. These 2 combos, are in my MUST DO list.

If I get a new snake then I don't get another until the first clears quarantine, so no more often than every 90 days.

I'm very much an amateur and have been keeping BP's for around 5 years, possibly a bit longer...

I've just decided on my 5th which is a hold back from my first clutch, a simple gene'd enchi male who I want to watch grow. But I am currently keeping an eye out a certain type of female, and later a male with the intention of trying to produce a super a few years from now.

My hobby is intended to be low level, while trying to learn at every opportunity and keep my collection at a manageable number.
One thing I keep in mind is feeding. The more animals, the more feeds are required, and younger animals more frequently.

It's a slow process, and breeding only became a decision a few years ago and I am still building, but purposefully taking my time in doing so.

My suggestion would be for you to get used the young BP's you've got first, "try" and learn to understand their "habits", experience a feeding draught and consider it again in a year or two, and go from there. The enthusiasm you feel now may change considerably once they've put you through a bit of stress, because they almost certainly will.

3 out of the 4, before deciding on the 5th which is my hold back, have all given me worry over eating. The longest dry spell being around the 6 month mark.

I also have the worry that I'll end up with more animals than I have 'planned' for, but am practicing self control... I hope!

Good luck and enjoy

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hannya

I total agree with this, i got my target list for my breeding plan, my first target is a CaliBee

---

Someone already brought up selling the single genes and such... But are you aware of the issues with spider gene as well? It's not just selling potential, it's health potential as well.
My breeding female is a killer queenbee [Super pastel lesser spider]. Any time you are working with spider, you must be aware that you may not be able to sell the offspring as well. I bred my girl because her spider gene impact is MINIMAL. She only wobbled the first week I got her as a yearling due to stress.
Out of her 4 hatchlings, 3 have the spider gene. All 3 are BEL, so it isn't something you can readily see on them, but all 3 will occasionally wobble while cruising their habitats. One of them, I'm still going to rehome, but as pet quality only because he also has the spider head tilt. None of mine have issues eating.... but there still is the very rare chance you will hatch a spider who's wobble is so severe that you may need to consider culling it if it cannot eat. You also run the risk of dead hatchlings if you breed a spider to spider or champagne. It's a fatal super gene

I will admit, GHI mojaves are beautiful and that is one of the snakes I was thinking of working towards. I understand the appeal. If you are seriously considering breeding you will definitely need to plan what you are breeding for and how to get there. Having a powerhouse male is ideal way to start. By this I mean a male who is already a super or allelic combo. I got a great price on my female, so I started a bit backwards. But the male I bred her to is a crystal enchi pastel. Every offspring from that pair is at the very least either pastel mojave or pastel special. I lucked out and all 4 hatchlings from my first clutch were white snakes. I was crossing fingers for a Blue Eye Lucy or two... But I wanted a female BEL holdback and they were all males. lol. So be careful what you wish for as well.

Either way, owning and breeding can be a rewarding experience. But make sure to do your research on what care you'll need or what kind of genetic combos can do what you're looking to do.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Armiyana

But are you aware of the issues with spider gene as well?

---

I do like some spiders I've seen, especially the clown spider I was handling a few weeks back. Awesome head marking... stunning little guy. A trade was hinted at but I've decided that I don't want one in my collection, mainly for the head wobble reason.

I did hear recently that adding GHI rectifies the wobble, though?!?!?!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bleh

I did hear recently that adding GHI rectifies the wobble, though?!?!?!

---

I haven't heard that yet. It doesn't sound too outlandish considering GHI counteracts Spider visually to an extent. They may even be allelic like Black Head and Spider are, which I have heard removes the wobble. It might be worth testing at some point. I do not have any GHI right now, but it's in my top 5 next to buy, and would honestly work out really lovely in a pairing to our Banana Bee imho.

You also have to think, do you have a market to sell these animals? How high is the demand for ball pythons where you are? Do you have a reliable food source to feed these animals? Most people don’t like spider but IMO they do just fine and the wobble doesn’t effect them if they aren’t stressed. I think you should definitely wait a little longer before you think about getting more snakes


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nikkubus

I haven't heard that yet. It doesn't sound too outlandish considering GHI counteracts Spider visually to an extent. They may even be allelic like Black Head and Spider are, which I have heard removes the wobble.

---

Yeah, I was looking into another gene a week or two back and it was mentioned about the Black Head removing the wobble too. It was a comment made about not knowing if the gene might remove the wobble like the GHI and BH do, but the commentator wouldn't be surprised as it was another dark gene being talked about so was suggestive of there being link between dark genes and removing head wobbles in spiders, but was clear to state they didn't actually know and it was just a possible theory they'd thought of, but haven't looked further in to it than that!