sugar, fire and enchi are definitively nice-looking morphs. All 3 are good genes to work with that can make some beautiful stuff, and super fires and super enchis are also very nice.


But for a recessive project, one plan could be: Male visual pied, and females that are 100% het pied and also have a different gene. A female leopard would also make sense.

or, one step up, male visual pied + extra gene, and female visual pieds, and female het pieds + extra gene.

the male should always be genetically more powerful (or at least with genes that are more expensive), in every breeding you do.

So if you go straight to a female visual pied, you also should get a male visual pied, ideally with an extra codominant in it. And one or two extra females that are het pied, or het pied + extra gene. also it should be one male and 3 females, or at least two females, and all of these pairings should be capable of giving you the visual recessive right away, starting with the first clutches.


So, maybe your shopping list should be:

- male visual pied
- female sugar/calico 100% het pied
- female fire 100% het pied
- female enchi 100% het pied

and one generation later you can upgrade using your own male and female visual pied + extra gene ball pythons from your own production. If you produce a lot of visuals right away, you will have many pied hatchlings to choose from for holdback, you will hit your pied + extra gene stuff, you will get visual pieds of the gender you need, and can start selling some visual pieds right away.

for codominant and dominant genes its a different story, but for a recessive project, you need to commit to it in order to really get it going. If you have some females that are not 100% het pied, and a male that is maybe just a het pied and not even a visual, and then a nice female visual pied, then your pied project wont really go anywhere. it will just stutter along and het pied and possible het pied floats around in your collection and it may be a decade until you reach a point where you have a breeding group of male and female visual pieds with extra genes running.