Breeding...rentals??

[Sjm5161]

I have a female het pied ball python. I'm not sure yet if I am going to breed her in the future. But if I were, is renting out a male, say a pied, even a thing? Or would I need to buy my own for breeding purposes? Again I'm not sure if I even want to breed, as there are plenty of beautiful snakes that have already been born that need a good home. But I really would love a full pied female...

[Eric Alan]

Here's a fantastic article on this exact subject:

• Breeder Loans and Other Terrible Partnering Ideas (http://ballpythonbreeder.com/2009/10...tnering-ideas/)

[dr del]

Hi,

There are, indeed, things called "breeding loans" but it is a quite complicated arrangement to keep both sides happy.

You also need to consider quarantine quite seriously so it generally takes a long time either without your snake or keeping both partners. You also need to have arrangements in place to deal with sickness in either snake, who gets what number of snakes from any resulting clutch, who chooses which snake first from the hatchlings etc.

I'd have a search of some of the threads dealing with it to see what problems or experiences people have had.


**ETA** ninja'd egad!

dr del

[Eric Alan]

**ETA** ninja'd egad!

I have a vast library of good bookmarks that I'm quick to reference whenever called upon.

[Sjm5161]

Thank you guys for the info/advice. Myself personally would not be interested in any 9f the resulting clutch except 1 peid, preferably female. The rest could go to the owner of the male. I don't wanthink to start a real collection honestly. I'd more be in it for the experience and the above mentioned 1 baby. The quarantine issue however is something I didn't think about and is a very good point. When I first got my girl she had mites and it took a good 2 weeks and alot of bedding to get rid of them.

[Eric Alan]

Thank you guys for the info/advice. Myself personally would not be interested in any 9f the resulting clutch except 1 peid, preferably female. The rest could go to the owner of the male. I don't wanthink to start a real collection honestly. I'd more be in it for the experience and the above mentioned 1 baby. The quarantine issue however is something I didn't think about and is a very good point. When I first got my girl she had mites and it took a good 2 weeks and alot of bedding to get rid of them.

Quite honestly, I'd just save your pennies and buy the Pied female you want. They're not all that expensive and it'll be a lot less of a hassle.

[Sjm5161]

Quite honestly, I'd just save your pennies and buy the Pied female you want. They're not all that expensive and it'll be a lot less of a hassle.

Fair enough. But I'd really love to have that experience of breeding. Even though I'm not interested in starting a business or anything, it is still incredibly interesting to me. But you are probably right....

[Eric Alan]

Fair enough. But I'd really love to have that experience of breeding. Even though I'm not interested in starting a business or anything, it is still incredibly interesting to me. But you are probably right....

Chances are you wouldn't get much of that experience at all anyway. It's the female that typically gets sent to go visit the male, so your end of the experience would quite likely be sending your girl off and waiting not-so-patiently.

[piedlover79]

The real problem with breeding just for the experience (particularly when your snake is only het for pied) is that you could end up with snake that are hard to rehome. Whoever has the male pied is also likely to be uninterested in any of the het pied hatchlings (the males are even harder to place). Finding homes for hets is getting harder and harder particularly if you're not a known breeder (people are less likely to believe that your animal is het). If you're going to breed you need to have a plan for 'unwanted' hatchlings. You also have to be prepared for what needs to be done if hatchling comes out severely deformed.

[cchardwick]

I think it would be difficult to get one on loan since many people use one male to several females, so to borrow a breeder male you would have to find someone who isn't breeding that snake to other females. However, if you can find a local breeder you may be able to loan out your female and have her paired up for several weeks, maybe added to their rotation, then bring her home and hope for the best.

Another option would be to buy a male, breed him for a couple months, then sell him again. I've actually considered this myself, you could bring in a whole bunch of fancy males and turn around and sell them and get most or all of your money back. Then you'd have all the offspring and could hold back a male or two.

Another option would be to breed your het pied to a pied that has one or more genes, something like a pinstripe pied, or maybe a pastel spider pied, or even an albino pied. Then you would get more of a variety of babies that would all be pied or het for pied, or even double het pied / albino, you would get pinstripes, spiders, and pastels all het for pied. Easier to sell than straight normal het for pied. Or even better, you could pair up with a super pastel pied, then you'd get at least all pastels het for pied or pastel pieds.

What state are you in? How big is your female and how old, how much does she weigh?