Starting Up

[Jguido1987]

Hello all, this is my first post.
I am thinking of starting a breeding program for ball pythons. As an early teen I use to keep several different types of reptiles. Cornsnakes/ball Python/leopard geckos/bearded dragons/Columbian red tail/Brazilian rainbow/kingsnakes/and maybe even a few others that I can’t remember. The only one I ever tried to breed were the leopard geckos. I was “successful” with one egg that hatched. As a 12yo I was amazed with the hobby. As I got older life progressed, high school/college/work/marriage/kids....., and my collection faded away. Now that I am older and moving into a new house I wanted to start to get back into it all. I am shutting down and selling off my reef aquarium and am planning on using some of that money to start up. “Retirement” is about 10 yrs away and my ultimate goal would be to have a self sustaining hobby that may eventually put a little money in my pocket. And for those that say I shouldn’t do it for the money. Don’t worry I’m not. I can dream of having a corvette doesn’t mean it will happen and I’m ok with that.
I have a few questions for those that have been doing this for a while.
What are some of the mistakes you made in the beginning that you would advise others to avoid?
What are some morphs that are a good starting point? What are some real nice combinations?
Budget wise I would like to be somewhere around $1000 to start with the total animal investment. I was thinking 1.1 or 1.2 ratio.
Thanks in advanced to any all who take the time to answer.

[Godzilla78]

Buy one or two high end males, the rest get females. 1:4 ratio roughly. You get what you pay for, cheap snakes make cheap snakes... expensive snakes make expensive snakes. Study the genetics of ball python morphs, identifying recessives and co dominants as well as alleles.
Study what combos look like.
Make sure you buy the best habitats and thermostats. Don’t buy cheap thermostats, build your own crummy rack, and then realize you have junk and have to buy a new rack and stats. Just get the good stuff right away.
Ask questions to breeders, watch videos, read, research.



Kaos Balls

[Jguido1987]

My intial thought was to find a sub adult female and find a younger male that accents her well. Would you suggest finding a male first and then a female that accents the male?
I understand that this is not a overnight process and I would much rather have a plan in play to maximize my success and enjoyment. Essentially I don’t really expect to have a first clutch for two yrs if I was to find a subadult female.
I am just in shock with all the different morphs and combinations. I have been using the morph calculator and see how overwhelming it can actually be.

[RedRabbit]

Out of curiosity - since your past experience with reptiles includes a pretty good variety - is there any reason you're aiming to breed ball pythons in particular? I ask this because I'd like to offer a perspective as a consumer. (I am definitely not a breeder and do not claim to have any experience in that realm.) In the current reptile hobby, BPs are pretty much the most popular species of snake, but this also means the BP market is by far the most saturated and competitive. You can see how evident this is just by visiting any reptile show/expo or taking a look at the sheer number of animals available on Morph Market. This competitive pressure also means it is seeing (and will likely continue to see) some of the most rapid shifts when it comes to what morphs are considered trendy, "cutting edge," and worth investing into - especially since many of the major BP breeders also have strong social media presences that keep the consumer base regularly up-to-date on what is new and exciting.

If your goal is to gradually get into snake-breeding as a hobby that can eventually self-sustain and possibly generate some net profit by 10 years down the line when you retire, I think it's important to consider that you're going to be periodically investing into animals with new morphs/genes in order to keep your breeding collection current to what is marketable at a given point in time in the future. While this does apply to any reptile species that boasts a decent variety of morphs, I'd guess that the shifts will occur the most rapidly in BPs given the already mind-boggling number of genes and gene combinations that are available.

Where am I going with this? I suppose ultimately I'm asking if you would also be interested in breeding any reptile species other than BPs (assuming a similar level of difficulty for the breeding process itself). If BPs are your favorite and that is why they are your top choice, then certainly I can't argue with that (I have two myself, and absolutely adore them), and I'm not here to talk you out of them. But if there are other snake or lizard species that you might also have an interest in breeding, then I wonder if others on this site with experience in breeding these species would be able to chime in with more advice and perspectives.

[ballpyt]

Been keeping ball pythons little over 2 years now. This will be our first breeding season so fingers crossed.

I recommend getting females first, growing them up and buying a male(s) later down the road. Males are cheaper and breed at younger ages. I would suggest a back up male. Our hopeful stud turned out to be a complete dud our first season. He wouldn't breed a thing.

Work with genes you like and want to work with and come up with a goal(s) for the project(s) you plan on going with but also be flexible. We really like black pastel clowns and we are hoping to hit 1 or 5 this season and black pastel hypo clowns down the road.

Try to get a decent variety including hets.

I can't really speak on the business side but maybe look at specializing in a certain gene? Like how JD Constriction specializes in Axanthic.

[bcr229]

Where am I going with this? I suppose ultimately I'm asking if you would also be interested in breeding any reptile species other than BPs (assuming a similar level of difficulty for the breeding process itself). If BPs are your favorite and that is why they are your top choice, then certainly I can't argue with that (I have two myself, and absolutely adore them), and I'm not here to talk you out of them. But if there are other snake or lizard species that you might also have an interest in breeding, then I wonder if others on this site with experience in breeding these species would be able to chime in with more advice and perspectives.

This is a good point. If you're disciplined enough to maintain a reef tank then there are a lot of reptile species that you would have no problem keeping and breeding. You could easily keep locality/dwarf boas or rainbow boas, or the liaises species of pythons, run one male and two females, breed each female every other season, and easily break even.

[Jguido1987]

Out of curiosity - since your past experience with reptiles includes a pretty good variety - is there any reason you're aiming to breed ball pythons in particular? I ask this because I'd like to offer a perspective as a consumer. (I am definitely not a breeder and do not claim to have any experience in that realm.) In the current reptile hobby, BPs are pretty much the most popular species of snake, but this also means the BP market is by far the most saturated and competitive. You can see how evident this is just by visiting any reptile show/expo or taking a look at the sheer number of animals available on Morph Market. This competitive pressure also means it is seeing (and will likely continue to see) some of the most rapid shifts when it comes to what morphs are considered trendy, "cutting edge," and worth investing into - especially since many of the major BP breeders also have strong social media presences that keep the consumer base regularly up-to-date on what is new and exciting.

If your goal is to gradually get into snake-breeding as a hobby that can eventually self-sustain and possibly generate some net profit by 10 years down the line when you retire, I think it's important to consider that you're going to be periodically investing into animals with new morphs/genes in order to keep your breeding collection current to what is marketable at a given point in time in the future. While this does apply to any reptile species that boasts a decent variety of morphs, I'd guess that the shifts will occur the most rapidly in BPs given the already mind-boggling number of genes and gene combinations that are available.

Where am I going with this? I suppose ultimately I'm asking if you would also be interested in breeding any reptile species other than BPs (assuming a similar level of difficulty for the breeding process itself). If BPs are your favorite and that is why they are your top choice, then certainly I can't argue with that (I have two myself, and absolutely adore them), and I'm not here to talk you out of them. But if there are other snake or lizard species that you might also have an interest in breeding, then I wonder if others on this site with experience in breeding these species would be able to chime in with more advice and perspectives.

First I would like to thank you for such a detailed and thought out response. Overall the main reason I am choosing to start with ball pythons is Bc if everything does not work out and in the end I am left with a large source/supply of ball pythons, I would not consider that a failure. I would have created some beautiful animals that are enjoyable for myself.
As far as the business and morph part of of the market that seems to be constantly changing. I have essentially decided that I may never likely be at the front end of that. But to create some beautiful healthy python morphs that can sell, would be my main goal. If it was to go into other species that would be great as well.
Overall I need a hobby, everyone does, and if I can do something I enjoy responsibly, that eventually leads to more I would more then happy.