Planning First Breeding Project

[Ellentomologist]

Hello!

First of all, please correct me if I am doing anything impolite or against forum policy! I'm fairly new here, though I have been lurking for years. If I do anything wrong, I certainly want to correct the issue ASAP.

Now, on to the "meat" of this post. I've been keeping reptiles for several years, but am relatively new to ball pythons. I've wanted one since I was a child and have kind of obsessed over them, reading up on forums, books, and Youtube channels (well, "watching up" on there I guess) for the past 3-4 years. Recently I graduated college and got my first job with a modest but very livable wage, and as such decided to purchase my first ball python, pictured below, as a graduation/new job gift for myself.

His name is Piombi, like the pasta, and I have more pictures of him available though nothing super convenient to post if anyone wants a better look at him. He's a Pastel Yellow Belly het Clown, about 8 months old, through a breeder who has a good reputation (even confirmed gender in front of me and showed me pictures of the parent, plus gave me the care card for Piombi). While I realize it will be quite a while before he's of breeding size, I did buy him with the intention of eventually doing some breeding in the future. Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten the het clown, honestly.

I had really intended to buy a female when I went to the expo, but Piombi just really caught my eye. The S.O. loves yellow BPs and I love morphs with pastel in the mix. I'm hoping to get a female in the next few months so that I will have them both of breeding size in 2-4 years (around the time I'll be in a permanent living situation), which is why I'm posting here. I'm looking for morph suggestions for Piombi's future "girlfriend".

Obviously something that is at least het clown is ideal, and since I'd really like to make some sterlings/pewters cinnamon is also preferred, though I am flexible on that. What would you guys recommend personally? Obviously I'm young and inexperienced, and I don't intend for this to become anything more than a hobby, so I would like to focus on a small number of high-quality, beautiful snakes.

Thanks in advance!
-Ellen

[rufretic]

At the very least I would get a visual clown female. I wouldn't mess around with het x het breeding because you'll end up with less visuals if any and no guarantee that the others are even het. Depending on how much you want to spend, any visual clown combo would be a nice pairing. You should base it on what you like and would like to make. I would also get the female asap because she will take much longer to mature to breeding size than your Male unless you don't mind paying a lot more for a female that is already close to breeding size. This is important to decide because not only are visual clown females at breeding size very expensive, they are also much harder to find.

[Lord Sorril]

I agree with rufretic. If you aren't prepared to handle a large volume of snakes and you want to work with a recessive trait you are going to have to shell out the money and get a visual Clown female.

For me personally (since I don't mind holdbacks) I would go Fire Blade Het Clown female and take a 1/64 shot at producing a Firefly Blade Yellow Belly Clown. I would keep any visual clowns for ongoing breeding and resell the rest.

[Ellentomologist]

At the very least I would get a visual clown female. I wouldn't mess around with het x het breeding because you'll end up with less visuals if any and no guarantee that the others are even het. Depending on how much you want to spend, any visual clown combo would be a nice pairing. You should base it on what you like and would like to make. I would also get the female asap because she will take much longer to mature to breeding size than your Male unless you don't mind paying a lot more for a female that is already close to breeding size. This is important to decide because not only are visual clown females at breeding size very expensive, they are also much harder to find.

Gotcha! I was planning/hoping to get a visual clown, but figure het clown is better than nothing, particularly since there's a chance I won't be keeping the female permanently. As I mentioned, I am very interested in making pewters/starlings, so I will see about a cinnamon clown. I already knew about the difference between males and females and maturity, I was actually intending to buy a female at the expo I got Piombi at for exactly that reason, but I appreciate the reminder. Thank you so much for your help!

[Ellentomologist]

I agree with rufretic. If you aren't prepared to handle a large volume of snakes and you want to work with a recessive trait you are going to have to shell out the money and get a visual Clown female.

For me personally (since I don't mind holdbacks) I would go Fire Blade Het Clown female and take a 1/64 shot at producing a Firefly Blade Yellow Belly Clown. I would keep any visual clowns for ongoing breeding and resell the rest.

Hiya. I'll take that into consideration, though like I say I'm not really intending for this to become much more than a somewhat time and money consuming hobby, haha. I really like clowns, so getting a visual clown probably isn't the worst idea anyway though. I haven't actually seen any local breeders with the blade gene, though. Sad. Thanks for the help1

[Lord Sorril]

I haven't actually seen any local breeders with the blade gene, though.

Which would make the offspring easier to sell/rehome since they are not common in your area

[Ellentomologist]

Which would make the offspring easier to sell/rehome since they are not common in your area

LOL! Very very true. In that case, is there a forum discussing different online suppliers and/or finding breeders in a particular state? I'm out Detroit area of Michigan... Lots of good breeders, but I have noticed that many morphs here are feast or famine (for instance we have bananas everywhere). BHB reptiles is a local online supplier and they have a lone blade male listed, and at the Taylor Reptile expo I saw maybe 2-3 more total out of the several hundred BPs I was looking at.

Thanks!

[rufretic]

LOL! Very very true. In that case, is there a forum discussing different online suppliers and/or finding breeders in a particular state? I'm out Detroit area of Michigan... Lots of good breeders, but I have noticed that many morphs here are feast or famine (for instance we have bananas everywhere). BHB reptiles is a local online supplier and they have a lone blade male listed, and at the Taylor Reptile expo I saw maybe 2-3 more total out of the several hundred BPs I was looking at.

Thanks!

You need to check out morphmarket, it will blow your mind lol!

[Bogertophis]

And by the way...

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Considering your male I would not go with anything less than a clown, having to deal with poor odds from het to het breeding and having to deal with poss hets are not something I would recommend for a first time breeder, sure you can have great odds been there done that but the difference is if I did not I still had 20 to 25 clutch that could make up for it.

As someone who wants to start breeding you want to be able to have some powerful holdbacks for your future projects.

So my choices depending on your budget would be

Clown
Enchi Clown
Fire Clown
Lesser Clown