The allure of breeding...

[WastelandExotics]

For me, when I get into breeding, it would be for the best quality, representative of the morphs.

But the "best quality, representative of the morph" is extremely subjective and varies from person to person as again, there is no standard and thank whatever it is that's out there that there isn't one. It seems that BP morphs and their representations are a little more artistic/visual preference than strictly adhering to a standard, which is exactly how it should be. This is something that keeps getting brought up in the hobby every so often and 99.99% of people in the hobby aren't interested in the idea of creating a standard.

To the person above who mentions GSD, there are more varieties than the “classic” look, black and white. That classic look has a wide variety of actual colors/shades and whether there is an actual saddle, etc. plus there are more colors than just the Black and Tan in what you consider the “classic” look. (I have a black GSD and her littermates included sables and dark agoutis without the classic saddles.)

I was being as simplistic as possible and was giving an extremely basic example to illustrate a point tbh. It's sort of a moot point when you consider the amount of slight variations in Shepherd's (or any dog breed for that matter) coloring/markings vs. the metric ton of variation in BPs.

[zina10]

My adaptation of Forrest Gump's words...

Ball Python breeding is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you get

Well, you KIND of know the possibilities, but in the end, its up to the "odds gods".

I bought really nice (and not cheap at that time) morphs a few years ago. Breeding was never a priority, but a distant "maybe". I chose those morphs on what I "LOVED" to see everyday, I wanted to be excited about my animals, not just what they may or may not produce. I didn't rush into breeding, even though more profit is to be made if you do not waste time.

Profit was never my priority, though, so I didn't care about that. It took 7 years before I decided, well, why not. Let's try this What I cannot sell, I'll just give away to some deserving, willing to learn "newbies" to the hobby.

It was a wonderful experience. A lot of learning, for sure. It made me decide to get my dream morphs and breed them once they are adults. To raise "my own" little dream snakes.

I'm still not in a hurry, I'm still not worried about profit. This morph does have a market, but I chose these animals based on how much I love them, rather then the potential profit.

[cchardwick]

Here's my top 10:

1) Making really cool patterns and colors
2) Making a 'worlds first' combo
3) Hitting it big and making a new morph that is in high demand
4) New morphs coming out all the time, keeps the hobby 'fresh'
5) If you have a good plan you can quit your day job and breed snakes at home for a living dropping out of the 'rat race'
6) Low maintenance compared to other animals that need to eat every day (and make a mess every day)
7) Can stack a lot of snakes in a small space (using a rack system)
8) Very little overhead compared to other animals (don't need trailers, barns, lots of land, etc..)
9) You can get in at any price point you want, from as low as a free snake all the way to over $100,000 per snake
10) You can become somewhat of a legend in your area being the only person in town with a house full of snakes LOL.

[John1982]

I kept reptiles about 20 years before I had any interest in breeding. For me it was another aspect of husbandry I never delved into until one day deciding to give it a shot. Nowadays you see a lot more people coming fresh to the hobby with the sole purpose of producing offspring. I personally sell more pairs and groups of snakes than I do single animals. Heck, even with the singles everyone seems to be after a specific sex because they're planning on breeding. I don't believe I've ever sold a snake where the buyer wasn't interested in the sex, or asked about it as an afterthought. I only know why I breed snakes: it's darn interesting, and fun, and I can make a bit of extra money to offset keeper costs. There does seem to be a good portion of people getting into breeding with tunnel vision for the dollar signs, and it's not entirely their fault. I'm sure for most it starts with at least a passing interest/fascination but then they see such gimmicky sales slogans as "make your money back in 1 clutch".. It was definitely sellers who started that whole line of reasoning and it kind of snowballed. Now everyone in the hobby is an aspiring reptile breeder. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to be per se, just something that deserves considerable thought and planning if you're going to do it right, and do right by the animals. I see a lot of people trying to run with it before they're even crawling, let alone walking.

[ReptileChaos]

1. Love for BPs
2. The morphs
3. Doesn't hurt to recoup some of the feed costs ($400+ a month)

[Skyrivers]

Here's my top 10:

1) Making really cool patterns and colors
2) Making a 'worlds first' combo
3) Hitting it big and making a new morph that is in high demand
4) New morphs coming out all the time, keeps the hobby 'fresh'
5) If you have a good plan you can quit your day job and breed snakes at home for a living dropping out of the 'rat race'
6) Low maintenance compared to other animals that need to eat every day (and make a mess every day)
7) Can stack a lot of snakes in a small space (using a rack system)
8) Very little overhead compared to other animals (don't need trailers, barns, lots of land, etc..)
9) You can get in at any price point you want, from as low as a free snake all the way to over $100,000 per snake
10) You can become somewhat of a legend in your area being the only person in town with a house full of snakes LOL.

THIS ANS THIS AND SO MUCH MORE!.... LOL.... love this.

The more I find out about morphs and Balls in general, the more I am sucked into the love of the animal.

By the way... I am one of those people who thing everyone should have a Great Dane if they love dogs. Great breed in general. Only draw backs is feeding expense and short lifespan.