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Beginner Breeding Advice
Hi everyone, I've joined this site for some insight into the world of breeding. While I understand this is a time consuming process, I would love to invest in and maintain my babies in the proper and healthy way, rather than just jumping in head first without having dipped my toes in the water.
I have been doing a lot of reading on breeding Ball Pythons (if you recommend any books in particular, that would be amazing!!!), watching as many videos as I can, but as a self-taught breeder I feel as though I'm lacking specifics to get started. Each source is different, but they typically are only going into depth about the success of breeders with hundreds of snakes!
I am looking for some advice to put me on the right track.
I understand this is a broad request that could have several broad answers, but I'm just looking for some pointers to help me start my journey.
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Re: Beginner Breeding Advice
How many ball pythons do you currently own?
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How long have you been keeping ball pythons?
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#1 Learn proper bp husbandry and master it, typically takes experience but getting a professional rack system will greatly increase your learning curve.
#2 Learn bp genetics and morphs and how they work together, also typically takes experience but a good percentage can be learned online.
#3 Learn the bp market, this means studying what sells, what has good value, what will still have good value in years to come and most importantly what morphs do not sell. It's bad for the animals and you to make babies you get stuck with.
#4 Learn the physical bp breeding process.
#5 Have a lot of money to invest, $10,000 plus if you want to do things right and don't expect any return for years, more investing typically.
That's about as broad as I can be. This is not to discourage you but just being honest about the right way to do this so you have a chance at being successful. The people that don't learn these important parts on bp breeding typically fail and quit in a year or two. For number 5 you can obviously start smaller than that but all of the successful breeders out there, I guarantee you they have more than $10,000 invested.
Good luck!
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Registered User
It really depends on what you want out of breeding. Are you going to quit your job and breed snakes full time or are you looking to breed because it’s fun and you would to have a hobby that pays for itself. I’m an educator, and I love my job. I’m planning on breeding snakes for fun and maybe some extra cash. Being creative and seeing what I can make is a huge part of breeding for me.
this is how I would recommend starting. Research everything.
You need to know how you will sell your snakes, online, at shows, local pet stores, whatever. Without a plan you might end up with a ton of babies and no place to sell them.
Research the morphs and choose something to work with. For me it made since to start kind of small. I had a bamboo male and I researched what would go good with that morph. I purchased several females that should pair well with bamboo. Clowns, pieds, and a lot of other stuff are awesome, but they are on the back burner for now because I don’t have a male to work with those genes.
Start with females. I have several cheaper multi gene girls that I am working on getting up to size. In a few years I plan on buying one great male that can breed with multiple females. Females will take a few years to reach breeding age a male maybe one year.
Buy nice snakes. Cheap snakes make cheap snakes. I’d rather have one three gene female that three pastels. You really do get what you pay for.
Last edited by AzJohn; 03-14-2020 at 11:04 AM.
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