Hi... I am new to the forum and spent the better part of last night reading the posts & learning alot. Two days ago I bought my first Ball Python (normal) from a great breeder in my area (NC). She is wonderful... settled in enough to eat last night! Immediately I was hooked. I went back to see the breeder yesterday and ended up bringing home a sweet little 50% het for pied male. (I know... I'm nuts, but I know & trust my breeder & got a really good deal on the male) So now for the questions...

1) I've heard that the best test of a poss. het male is to grow him up, breed him to a normal, then breed him back to his daughters. In this case, I'm sure there would probably be males from the PH x Norm breeding, which I would not need. What would these be considered? 25% Possible Hets? Or sell them as Normals? If the Father turns out to be a Het, then the offspring would be 50% Possible Hets themselves...

2) What's the deal with "marker traits" for Pied? My breeder showed me a few snakes, some with a dark striping along the sides of the belly (supposidly "marker"?), some with the stripe closer to the middle of the belly (non-marker?). He also told me that he has seen Pieds come from "markers" as well as "non-markers" and it really wasn't a visual het like the Fire Balls. Can anyone confirm or deny any of this?

Thanx :wink: