Morph Breeder just starting out.

[Kayla.thrash]

I am a morph breeder just starting out. I have been working with ball pythons for a while now, about a couple years.
I want to start breeding. I have all the supplies, and have a 2000 budget on the morphs. what would you guys recomend,
what is worth investing in?

[Meltdown Morphs]

1: Do research on morphs yourself. http://www.worldofballpythons.com/morphs/

2. Find morphs that interest YOU first.Put up some of your selections.

3. Then seek suggestions to help narrow things down if needed.
A 2000 budget can be split many ways. Were you looking to get only 1 snake or several? Hatchlings or adults?That can all affect what you will be able to buy.
You can probably get a 2012 2-gene male for a decent amount and still be able to pick up 2 females. depending on what your looking for.Some good morphs that aren't priced to high would be anything with fire,enchi,butter/lesser/mojave,mystic, pinstripe. Basically most of the base codom genes. Recessives are never a bad thing but they require much more patience before you see visuals.

There are several morphs out there worth investing in but people could help you more if you know what YOU want first instead of asking us to tell you what you should buy.

[Slowcountry Balls]

You really need to decide your time table first. If you want to go slow, but get the most genes for your money, buy only female morphs this year. I would suggest 3 at least. I am assuming you are starting out small scale and will increase when you can (based on time and money). I think a good starting group would be 1 male and 3 females. If you are buying young snakes, you should buy only females first because they take longer to mature than the males. You could get 1 double gene female and 2 single gene females pretty easily with your budget. You would then raise them for a year and get the male (at least a 2 gene male) the following year so that you can save more money for that. Colin Weaver has writen some good articles on Ball Python breeding that I have found helpful (http://ballpythonbreeder.com/), especially this one, http://ballpythonbreeder.com/2012/02...thon-breeders/. You should read what he has to say about pairing higher value males with lower value females.

As far as morphs, that really is up to what you like. Pick out a couple of combinations you really want to make, and buy the building blocks. I'm partial to Mojaves and Mystics/Phantoms, but that's just me. You have to find what you really like so that you'll enjoy this ride. Like what was mentioned above, find some morphs that you like, post them here and see what others have to say. Others may be able to suggest another morph that will combine with what you like that you haven't thought of. But the bottom line is that you have to go with what you like, because you'll see them every day and be caring for them.