What is the first morphs to get for a newby breeder to start out with.

[Jacy Benton]

Im just a Ball python enthusiast/lover and want this to be something me and my son can do together /some income/stress releiver.

What is the first couple pairs i shoud get , to start breeding with? Also will take suggestions on reading material for this?

Thank you,
Jacy Benton

[SilverDemon]

You can never go wrong with pastel females. Pastel looks good in ANY morph.

Yellowbellies are known for tricking out pattern, and the super form is pretty all on it's own. Fires are in the same boat as Yellowbellies, good for tricking out pattern, and a gorgeous super.

Spiders and Pinstripes are good for pattern morphs, and Hypos are great for getting simple recessive genes in there.

All these morphs are pretty inexpensive, and you can't go wrong with good quality animals.

If you can spend a little more money, Lessers, Mojaves, Albinos, Cinnamons/Black Pastels, all are great additions to any breeding collection.

Really, it all depends on what you and your son like best. After all, you'll be the one having to look at these snakes for the next quite a few years, so might as well get something you like!

Your best bet would be to get a few single gene females and one or two double gene males.

[bobbyb]

Yeah what SilverDemon said..Its really on what you like and what money you have to spend its really on colors and patterns that you guys like.This forum helps ALOT any questions you have just ask and you will get alot of people to help out.

[Ezekiel285]

Welcome to BP.net!

i would recommend any of the dominant or co-dominant gene BPs (spider, pastel, cinnamon, pinstripe, etc.) to start out with because that gives you lots of options and gives you time to figure out what you like. I started out with a pastel and then got a spider. And then after that i got 2 recessive gene snakes (orange ghosts). Its really up to you. I would look up Ball pythons (the expensive ones you wont have for a long time) and figure out what you want to make. That way you have a goal and can get the snakes needed to create whatever your goal is. And if you pick up 2 or 10 extra snakes on the way that don't involve your goal thats ok too

[Kinra]

You definitely want to read up on breeding before making any decisions. I suggest you check out this for more info on breeding. Depending on how fast you want to get into breeding you might consider picking up some proven breeder normal females and a nice male, if you are looking to start breeding in a few years you could get hatchling female morphs. Males will breed much sooner than females, so you want to focus on females originally.

I personally prefer to have females that are co-dominate, i.e. pastels, fires, yellow bellies, butters, because you can either get super forms faster by breeding a male of that morph to the female or by breeding a son back to the mother. So for instance if you wanted to start with a spider and pastel, I would get a nice female pastel and a male spider. That way if I get a male bee I can breed him back to mom for super pastels and killer bees. If the dad was the pastel you need to wait for a bee daughter to grow up before you could try for supers.

As for what to get, it really depends on what you like. If I was just starting out again I would get a male bee, female pastel, female lesser/butter, female yellow belly/fire and a female enchi. One male can easily breed multiple females so you don't need a lot of males in your collection.

[EverEvolvingExotics]

You definitely want to read up on breeding before making any decisions. I suggest you check out this for more info on breeding.

I've never run across that website. It is very well done. I'm going to have to bookmark it.

[babyknees]

What is your budget? What do you want the price range to be for the animals you're selling? How quickly do you want to produce expensive morphs? And MOST importantly what you YOU like? What are the morphs you want to make?

[Jacy Benton]

Thank you all for the guidance , it helps alot,
i have a few contacts that will give me a couple deals, so in a few months when i go back to school for phlebotomy , i will start my projects and show you all , how its going

[meowmeowkazoo]

I didn't see anyone mention this, but you should get one or two females to start. It will be at least a year before you need to worry about getting a male to breed them to, since the males breed at a much smaller size.

[seeya205]

I agree! Buy some really nice female morphs! The best you can afford! At least one gene, if you can afford a two gene combo then get that! It takes 3 years to raise up a female for breeding but the most you spend now, the more return you will get back in the future. Also this way you can get a couple years experience with balls before you start breeding. I would not worry about males right now as they only take 6 months to a year to breed. It would help to say what morphs you can afford if we had a budget to work with!