Senior project

[Distrakshun]

Hey everyone,
A while ago I posted a bulletin asking for help with my senior project. Thanks to everyone. But I need help again, At my school we have to work on a year long project on any topic, (its a graduation requirement). But since i had a love for snakes I decided to do mine on Ball Pythons. My essential question is along the lines of " Is it possible to breed a new morph of ball pythons and what causes these mutations?" I could use a little help with that too! But I was also wondering what a good morph would be to try and create even if its already been created. I have a small budget i was hoping to find a pair of ball pythons for around a $1000, ready to breed that will produce a morph. or i would really like to find out the sex of my bp and breed with that.

well anyways thanks alot

[recycling goddess]

i think you are going to need to sex your ball python first. IF you have a female and she's around the 1500 gram mark... you could possibly get some breeding done this year but (and i'm no expert) i believe all the breeding is being done right now. so you'd be waiting another year to be breeding as it's very expensive to buy breeders during breeding season.

now... i could be wrong, have been before and will be again... so perhaps more experienced breeders could step in and assist you here

[elevatethis]

Hey everyone,
A while ago I posted a bulletin asking for help with my senior project. Thanks to everyone. But I need help again, At my school we have to work on a year long project on any topic, (its a graduation requirement). But since i had a love for snakes I decided to do mine on Ball Pythons. My essential question is along the lines of " Is it possible to breed a new morph of ball pythons and what causes these mutations?" I could use a little help with that too! But I was also wondering what a good morph would be to try and create even if its already been created. I have a small budget i was hoping to find a pair of ball pythons for around a $1000, ready to breed that will produce a morph. or i would really like to find out the sex of my bp and breed with that.

well anyways thanks alot

Here's an honest answer, don't take this as an attack or anything...

I would say that would not be a good idea for a project. For one, there's a one in a billion chance that you would get a new morph from breeding ball pythons on that budget. Second, to breed ANY morph of ball python, including a pastel, you will probably spend well over $1000 to get started, even with just one pair. Remember, you aren't just buying snakes - you are buying enclosures, heating equipment, incubators, food, cleaning supplies, etc etc etc.

So, say you do get one pair, you are rolling the dice one time on one female, who may or may not even lay for you. Did you know that a 50% rate for females "going" is considered normal for a lot of people? That means only 1 in every 2 breeding females actually lay eggs. So you've got your odds working against you from the start.

If I were you, I would take this project and maybe lean towards breeding something else where its easier to get results. Certain fish breed like crazy, and there's a lot of cheap fish out there with many color 'morphs' that you could get set up for much less than $1000 for everything. You could even try it with rodents - mice and rats breed like crazy!