Any major "don'ts" to know heading into the breeding world??

[chelseawhelsee]

Hi, I'm new to this site and thought I'd start with this question.

I am just getting started with breeding ball pythons and only have a 1.0 bee to start off with.

While doing my research and looking around at all the morphs and possibilities...I am curious...are there any major don'ts that I should avoid?
I am overall just concerned with producing unhealthy babies that can have health issues (extreme head wobbles...more susceptible to respiratory infections...)or breeding morphs that will only bring me mass die offs of hatchtlings.


Having a 1.0 bee, I have read somewhere that one "don't" is to breed spiders/bees together.

I have also seen on the champagne spider page that it says that all shortly have died after birth.

So I guess things like that.. Morphs that don't do well when combined and result in poor health in offspring. Or is that a common reality in this industry that I will have to face if I want to reach higher end combo morphs?

[The Serpent Merchant]

This video (2 parts) goes over most of the Bad combos



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uStCAKMbnqQ

- - - Updated - - -

These can be easily avoided... but keep in mind ANY pairing has the potential to produce an animal that fails to thrive. You have to be prepared for this though it isn't very common.

For some reason it won't let me post part 2... I'll see if I can fix it but if not it is easy to find via Google.

[stickyalvinroll]

the only major dont i can think of is not to exploit the animals. make sure you can take care of the babies and your collection. make sure you do enough research about husbandry and what to do in the breeding season. if you do all these things right and still your babies turn bad or with defects. theres nothing else you can do. the spider wobble, i think is pretty cool!

[The Serpent Merchant]

Part 2:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fhnR...feature=relmfu

[chelseawhelsee]

Thank you for the replies and the video!

I love my bumble bee, and going into this breeding world I am not looking at it with only "money!!!" in my eyes. I have bred leopard geckos and Chinese water Dragons when I was younger, and now that I can keep snakes (my mom was absolutely terrified of them) the ball pythons and their beautiful variety of morphs definitely gets me hooked and excited to try breeding again.

I am taking into the consideration of these chances for having failures, but to avoid them the best I can is a major thing for me.
I have also been hearing people say "then breed it back to the male/female", are these also things that can create a higher risk by inbreeding your pythons? It's another thing I want to steer clear of even if it makes me getting to a higher morph more of a challenge.

the spider wobble, i think is pretty cool!

I've seen it in a few at my local reptile store, and I think they look ill...it like worries me and makes me anxious seeing an animal have some sort of physical defect like that. They just don't look right in the head shaking and wobbling like that...

Thank you for your input, and those videos were much appreciated.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Inbreeding doesn't have the same effects in reptiles as it does in say dogs. Yes there will be issues if you line breed for many generations, but 2-3 generations doesn't seem to cause any noticeable damage. In some cases it is necessary to crete more a a morph (mainly recessive morphs)

You do know that any morph crossed with a spider will have wobble to some degree (like Bees) 9 times out of 10 wobble is barely noticeable, and does't impact the snake in any negative way. (also it's not a physical defect, it is a neurological defect)

[chelseawhelsee]

oh duh, yeah, I mean neurological...lol

I did not know inbreeding with snakes would not be the same as it does like dogs. I just assumed that inbreeding was the source for all these problems, but I know nothing and am still learning which is why I've made this thread...I just have seen some sad posts about hatchlings and have been told things by others, and now that I am thinking of breeding myself, I don't want to run away from it all without researching it.

I read too that the incubation process can be a big factor to problems in hatchlings so I can't blame it all on genetics/ the snakes themselves.

With what stickyalvinroll said, I can just do my best in perfecting their husbandry and making sure I do things right with incubation.

And I guess I've been naive thinking that if my bee doesn't show any wobbles at all doesn't mean it won't produce offspring with wobbles (correct?) because obviously he has the spider gene in it, and he was just a lucky chance to not have/show any...and thats good to hear it doesn't have a negative impact on them. I had assumed that it did... Sorry, I must sound very naive lol

[The Serpent Merchant]

Your bee can start to show wobble at any point in its life, and any offspring could be low or high wobble... It is completely unpredictable, and can show up at anytime. Most spiders don't show it unless they are stressed or very excited. As I said before 9 times out of 10 it never causes any issues... The issue is that when it does people freak out. I personally feel that it is one of the most over blown things in this hobby.

It can have a negative impact on them but it is extremely rare for that to be the case. Basically it has to be bad enough that they cannot eat on their own.

The wobble is part of the spiders genetics ALL spiders/spider combos have it. Most simply don't display noticeable symptoms.

[I-KandyReptiles]

My bees have slight wobbles. Personally, i find it adds more personality :p my wobbly little babies!

Theirs is mild though, and they eat and whatnot perfectly fine. My little bee would eat and eat if I'd let him

[King's Royal Pythons]

DON'T......expect to get rich.