The future of morphs!

[talmadge]

Hello everyone, as a future breeder are there any morphs that I should look into?
I know it's a vague question but any opinion helps.
Thank you

[BHReptiles]

Look into what YOU like. Everyone's tastes and opinions are different. For example, banana is a pretty popular morph out there. However, I don't like bananas at all.

[whispersinmyhead]

I agree. If you are breeding just for money then it is going to be a very tough go. There are easier ways to earn more.

If you are breeding because you have a passion for these awesome animals then definitely start picking up morphs that wow you and don't worry about the next big thing. What was the first morph that caught your eye? Do you own it yet? I would start there. I had to narrow down what I wanted pretty quick because I want to breed this year for a family project. My 9 year old daughter wants to keep one baby for herself. I think it will be Ana awesome experience for us. I don't have plans to keep breeding at this point. Unless I don't get my BEL this time around

Picking morphs you like will probably be easy and if you do plan on keeping a larger collection (trying so hard to stop at six) then you will have an easier time. I find it very difficult.


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[whispersinmyhead]

Also spend lots of time at worldofpythons.com. They have great tools there. They genetics wizard sucks the time away. Have fun. Good luck!


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[TexanLady]

talmadge, I think first thing you need to do is ask yourself why you want to breed. If you are doing it to make money then buy the morphs that are most expensive and in demand. However, I should point out that ball python breeding is not a get rich quick career. Are there millionaires in this business? Of course, but they've also been doing this for decades and have literally built the ball python morph business from the ground up. They've earned their status and paychecks, quite literally, with years of hard work and patience.

If you're just starting out unless you have major cash to drop on adult breeder morphs you aren't going to be breaking the bank anytime soon. You can buy a female pastel hatchling in my area for $100, but an adult ready to breed is anywhere from $400-600. You can buy a hatchling lesser female here for $150-175, but an adult ready to breed is anywhere from $600-800. It takes years to establish a breeding operation, and MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! Be prepared to spend thousands on your snakes every year if you are going to attempt to breed, and that's not even counting unexpected vet bills. I have kept snakes for over ten years, and in my ball python collection alone I've spent over ten grand of my own money in the past three years beefing up my collection with animals I want to work with as well as adding racks and a professional incubator (Hot Box), because I didn't want to chance a malfunction and either kill my clutches or get a lot of deformed babies that would need to be euthanized. Racks cost money, incubators cost money, and then there is ALWAYS the weekly food bill to consider. Not to mention substrate (or newspapers/paper towels), electricity to heat enclosures, water, hides, water bowls, and anything and everything in between.

This is a very expensive hobby to take up, and even more expensive if you want to make any money doing it. Personally? I intend to trade most of my babies for designer balls and other reptiles I want to add to my reptile collection. Reptiles are a passion of mine, and that's why I have no problem waiting two or three years for a female to be ready to breed. This is my first year "officially" breeding, and I have no delusions about the fact it could take me years more to break even on what I've spent so far let alone begin to see any profit. Of course my intention to trade for some of my favorite designer morphs and other reptiles as well as keep anything I produce that really catches my eye isn't going to help things. Still, I made the decision to start breeding three years ago, and I have yet to make a cent of profit. Instead I've poured thousands upon thousands into my collection. That is the reality of breeding ball pythons.

However, if you are wanting to start something small and inexpensive and work your way up I can give you some advice I wish someone else had given me way back when.

1. Buy some adult normal females. If you go to a reptile show or watch the ads here, on Fauna, and on Kingsnake, you can get some adult normal female breeders from anywhere between $100-200.
2. Buy a tricked out male hatchling. A two gene, three gene, or four gene male. If you're lucky you can find a breeder willing to do a payment plan and you can go ahead and start paying him off while he's growing and getting up to breeding weight. Then breed this male to your females and hopefully the odds will be in your favor and you can get some nice babies that you can either trade for better morphs or sell to make your money back.
3. Always be upgrading! This is an ever changing business, and that Bumblebee female that cost thousands of dollars ten years ago is only $300 now. Every chance you get upgrade your balls.


This is my best advice, but again, you need to keep your expectations in check, and realize that breeding is a huge responsibility to undertake. Breeding and selling is not as easy as it seems. If it was everyone would do it. And if you are not prepared for the things that can go wrong it will only be worse. Like what would you do if you got an egg bound female? What would you do if you hatched a clutch of all deformed snakes? What would you do if one of your snakes got really sick and the vet bill was $1,700? What if you have five females that produce seven eggs apiece and you have thirty five babies, but no one is buying them, or at least not as quickly as you need? Can you afford to continue feeding those rapidly growing babies as well as your adult breeders?

And my last piece of advice? Buy what you are attracted to. There are some designer morphs going for thousands that I don't find appealing at all. I really like pieds and want to work with them on some original breeding projects in the future so I got pieds. I like albinos and really want to breed my own lavender albino pieds so I got some albinos too. See what catches your eye, imagine the different possibilities with different morphs and go from there.

Best of luck!