While Mike's delivery may not have been the best, he raises some valid points. For me personally, when I decided that I wanted to breed, I took the time to selectively choose several BABY female ball pythons that I took 2.5 years to raise to breeding weight.
During that time, I learned a lot more about the husbandry and care of ball pythons that was invaluable to me before I ever paired my first snakes.
A breedable sized female is not likely to breed for you in her first year in your collection. They don't adapt well to change and often need a full year to settle in before they'll be receptive to breeding.
I have a female on breeder loan with someone - the male that we agreed she is to be paired with is not ready to breed yet (she was bred to another of their males last season). When asked if I wanted to just bring her home and breed her myself, we decided that the stress of moving her back here would result in a lost season anyway, so she's staying at this breeder's to breed in the '09/'10 season.
Why not just take the time to choose some beautiful baby girls and raise them up yourself to breeding weight? In the meantime, you have 2 years to choose some really cool males to pair them with and great experience under your belt!
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