Breeding Normals..is it a bad thing?

[TheSnakeEye]

Nothing wrong with breeding two normals together, especially if it's only one clutch. If you were producing dozens or hundreds then it may be an issue. With that being said, I would make sure you have buyers lined up for the babies when they hatch unless you want to keep them all. Normals are very easily found in this industry and there is oversaturation of them so I try to minimize the chance of hatching them when I pair up my snakes. But if you're going to produce one clutch, it's not a big deal as long as you know what you are getting yourself into.

[Asherah]

You've got a normal female already, breed him to her. If he is a Silver Streak all the babies should be Pastel with the possibility of Pewters thrown in. Everybody loves Pewters!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Is it a bad thing?

Well from my experience I can tell you that when you produce normal that are the by product of other pairings they are VERY hard if not IMPOSSIBLE to move quickly.

Considering that the retail is about $15/$20 and that the demand is very low for normal hatchlings, especially since you have several single gene starting at $25 to $75 (male and females), no it's not a good idea unless you want to lose money, if you are looking at the business end of it or at least the economics of it.

By the time you will sell them if you do you will have spend more money on food and and housing than what you will sell them for.

The only normal that do sell are proven adult females and the retail is about $50 to $100 based on size.

With that in mind if you want the experience why not I guess, but remember that the experience is not everything and that you might have to keep them for a long time and the question is are you prepared and can you afford it?

And if you do pair Normal to Normal you can always wholesale the hatchlings out of the egg locally for the pet trade or as feeders but you should check on that first if this is the route you want to take.

Ads that you see online asking for clutches are usually designed for people producing larger numbers.

So ultimately it's your decision, would I breed Normal to Normal? Nope, I don't even breed normal females anymore and if I did the only way I would consider it would be to breed them to a Super.

[distaff]

I like the suggestion of breeding another species altogether. For ex, there don't seem to be many Angolan Python breeders around.

Anyway, research, research, research... first!

Don't discount books either. They STILL contain information I don't see turning up on line. If you want to breed BP's, I would start with NERD's book (Kevin - something?), the $80 one that just came out. You may decide to purchase animals just for breeding - as every one else has said, quality matters from a business perspective.

[SCWood]

I belong to a lot of reptile selling Facebook groups for Canada/Ontario and it amazes me how saturated the market is, not only with normals but with higher end morphs. People can't sell their snakes because so many breed them. Every post is lowering prices and offering special deals because they just want to move the animals out. Normals are either given away (sometimes as an incentive for buying a higher end morph. Buy one get one free!) or sold for $10-$20.

I think Normals are adorable and I'll probably end up with one someday because they're so readily available and cheap. I don't think there's anything wrong with breeding them, personally, but I think you have to be prepared to keep them. If you produce 10 normal hatchlings, you might end up keeping them all because you can't sell them. As long as you're prepared to house and feed that many normals, all the power to you.

I think it would be cool to breed. It seems so exciting. But I would never do it just because there are so many ball pythons. I belong to 6 groups that are ONLY for ball python selling and people posts huge lists of available 'stock'.

What if you tried breeding a different kind of snake that's not readily available in your area? I've been searching desperately for a Rosy Boa but there literally aren't any breeders in my province!! So if I ever decided to breed an animal, that's what it would be, lol.

That's such a great idea! Rosy boas and Kenyans are hard to find around here. We wanted a female...hmmn..

[coldbloodaddict]

So now I've established an answer to this(Thanks for all the feedback!!!), I have one more question. I have a little 300g Silver Streak male (2014) who is 'supposed' to be Liesen Line. I really want to prove him out once we get around to breeding. Is there a specific pairing that can definitely prove him out?

What are you trying to prove? That it is actually a Silver Streak? Or that he is carrying the Trick gene?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ajmreptiles]

What are you trying to prove? That it is actually a Silver Streak? Or that he is carrying the Trick gene?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't know what she is trying to prove, but its not trick, I remember her thread asking about the Liesen line silver streak, and my conclusion that one of the genes was the liesen line black pastel

[SCWood]

I don't know what she is trying to prove, but its not trick, I remember her thread asking about the Liesen line silver streak, and my conclusion that one of the genes was the liesen line black pastel

It's not trick, I just want to prove that he carries the gene.

What are you trying to prove? That it is actually a Silver Streak? Or that he is carrying the Trick gene?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just that he is a silver streak AND he is carrying a Liesen Line gene

[ajmreptiles]

Just that he is a silver streak AND he is carrying a Liesen Line gene

if you were to breed it to a normal you'll get pastels and black pewters

[SCWood]

Okay! So if I breed him later, and he produces otherwise, we know he's not silver streak?