!!!!breeding!!!!

[rabernet]

yeah, thats what i was planning on doing. this whole breeding thing wouldn't happen for a few years till i get the cash and experience. I'm just getting some opinions now and stuff so when the time comes when I'm ready to start. ill know what I'm doing and wont have to waste time figuring all this stuff out then.

In a few years, when you're ready to breed, your tastes for morphs may be completely different.

I would recommend first getting yourself a small rack (either buy or build) and get you a small collection of females and grow them up. I started in 2005 buying normal females as babies and raising them up. The experience that I gained working with several different animals with different personalities, likes and dislikes was invaluable.

People can give you all the advice in the world, but nothing compares to personal experience. A year before you're ready to breed, take a look at what morphs are priced then and see what you'd like to work with then. By that time, you may even have the money saved to get you a combination male, like a bumblebee, which when bred to a female could produce spiders, pastels, bumblebees and normals (as an example).

Also be planning for a baby rack during that time for housing any babies that you will be producing, and building an incubator. All of this costs money - you can't scrimp on things like a quality thermostat (which will run you $100 or more if you go with a proportional thermostat like a Herpstat or Helix to run your incubator). With my modest collection, I've got about 8 thermostats between the incubator and racks. Not cheap, but 100% necessary. And, I'll be buying another one very soon, because I need to make yet another rack.

$125 is a very small amount of money compared to the money you still need to invest in animals, vet care, husbandry equipment, food, etc - before you ever breed.

If you haven't read this sticky at the top of the BP Breeding forum, I'd recommend reading it - it's a great reality check:

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=49580