Het Pied Male?

[Crawly's Mom]

Hey guys! I am still very new to the ball python world, but I had a question. I was at the Arizona Reptile Center today and noticed they had a few balls. They had a pied male for about 1100 and then I noticed they had a het pied male for 100. When I asked the man about them he told me they were actually from the same clutch. Both were about two and good size, good eaters. So my question is this... I know that het means that he carries the gene for pied, but doesn't exhibit the trait. Why is he so much cheaper than the pied male? Is it because there is a higher probability of pied babies with the pied male or is it because the pied is better looking (matter of opinion of course)? Also is 100 a good price for a 2 year old het pied male?

[Skittles1101]

Because one is the actual morph and one carries the trait for the morph. The actual morph will cost more as opposed to just carrying the gene. Here is a thread on genetics.
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...nding+genetics

[Kinra]

Most people when working with recessive morphs will use het females and visual male (or visual females and a visual male). This is because it increases their odds of producing a visual morph. Breeding 2 hets together only gives you a 1 in 4 chance of producing a visual per egg and then you also have to deal with possible hets.

The visual morph is a lot more because that is what people really want, supply and demand. Someone went through all of the hard work to produce a visual. Visuals are also sought-after because breading 2 visuals together will produce nothing but visuals. Hets also aren't much to look at so it's much harder to convince someone to spend a lot of money on something that looks normal.

100 seems like a fair price to me for a 2 year old het peid male assuming 1.) he actually is a het pied and 2.) he has some decent size to him.

[piedplus]

IMO, that's a good price. If you want a het pied, you trust that they're telling you the truth, and he looks in good health, I'd buy him!

[Crawly's Mom]

They both looked to be in really good health. The only reason I tend to believe he is in fact a het pied was because they were from the same clutch and he told me they could give me the breeder information to verify. Also when you look at the het male, not sure if this is normal or not, but he had that aberrant body pattern, I just didn't see any white on him at all.

[Crawly's Mom]

I love the pieds, frankly I just cannot afford 1000, much as I would like to. So in order to produce pied babies with him I would have to find a het pied female or pied female in order to have the possibility, right?

[Kinra]

I love the pieds, frankly I just cannot afford 1000, much as I would like to. So in order to produce pied babies with him I would have to find a het pied female or pied female in order to have the possibility, right?

Correct. If you want to go the cheap route, a het pied female hatchling is going to be the cheapest. You'll still have a shot at producing pieds, but you may have to have a few clutches before you hit on a visual depending on your odds.

[Dave Green]

You would probably be better off purchasing a 2011 pair of het pieds which would cost approx $250 for the pair. If you buy an adult male you'll obviously need a female and an adult female het pied would easily cost $600+. Just a suggestion.

[Crawly's Mom]

If I get a pair of het pied babies now though its a two year wait at least, right? At least I know that is what is recommended for cornsnakes. This is all in theory of course, I am just thinking for the future, I would still need to learn a lot.

[Kinra]

If I get a pair of het pied babies now though its a two year wait at least, right? At least I know that is what is recommended for cornsnakes. This is all in theory of course, I am just thinking for the future, I would still need to learn a lot.

2-3 years is when most start breeding females. The problem is most females that are larger than hatchlings tend to cost a lot more. I bought almost all of my girls as babies so I could raise them up and get better morphs.