Breeding a male ball python at 350 plus grams

[Gloryhound]

They can have multiple fathers, but only one father can fertilize each egg. A lot of breeders are doing this now.

In other words, if you bred a male spider and a male pastel to a normal female, you could get spiders, pastels, and normals, but would not be able to make bumblebees.

Good info to have. I kinda figured if the first part was true that the second condition would go with it! Thanks! If our Pastel het albino makes wieght by the beginning of fall we will try breeding him and rotate him with our Normal male until we see the Pastel lock then the normal will be out of there and the pastel will be rotated in and out on an individual basis.

[JASBALLS]

Good info to have. I kinda figured if the first part was true that the second condition would go with it! Thanks! If our Pastel het albino makes wieght by the beginning of fall we will try breeding him and rotate him with our Normal male until we see the Pastel lock then the normal will be out of there and the pastel will be rotated in and out on an individual basis.

If you do that, You wont know what animals are possy hets or just normals.

[Brimstone111888]

I have heard of people breeding a spider male and pastel male to a normal and getting both pastels and spiders out of the clutch. Very rare though, but it has happened.

[JASBALLS]

I have heard of people breeding a spider male and pastel male to a normal and getting both pastels and spiders out of the clutch. Very rare though, but it has happened.

Yea, But mixing in a normal isnt a good thing..

[JenH]

I wouldn't have put a het male into the mix. That would be too confusing and lowers the change that any of the normal looking offspring are hets.

I'm afraid my normal male, Rex, is retired from now on.... Lily is the only one he bred. Since my 07 males are now breeding, I will probably be a little more structured in my breeding plans and not put multiple males in with a female.

[West Coast Jungle]

I mix co doms but not recessive, otherwise like Jas said, you don't know if you got hets or not

[papaK]

I've got a het clown male at 350 who has been locking up for me... will I get eggs? Who knows... but he seems determined.

[Gloryhound]

If you do that, You wont know what animals are possy hets or just normals.

This first breeding is mainly to make sure we are set up for later and everything like our incubator is working. Also to make sure we are doing everything right and not forgetting something stupid. The following year we will be breeding our Bumble Bee and Albino and they will only be coupled with our Pastel Het Albino. With those combos we can't afford to loose clutches due to wrong equipment and/or newbee mistakes. Normals with 50% PH Albino really does not make a Ball Python increase in value to much. Any Pastel born will automatically be 50% PH Albino and that combo can help them sell a little better. All the off spring from our experiment clutch will be sold off with a possible exception of a Pastel female.

On a side note we just bought an incubator from GQF Mfg. A 1250R. This is what Mike at Ball Pythons South uses.

[Brimstone111888]

Yea, But mixing in a normal isnt a good thing..

I was using a Normal female and I was just saying for the sake of example. I also agree it would be stupid to put a normal male in, since you would never be able to determine if the offspring is het or not.

[Gloryhound]

Now I know a lot of breeders out there are really good and when they say one of their snakes is a Het it really is and if I buy a het from their stock of hatchlings I can be sure I am getting what I am paying for. Now you go down the road and breed this het to something that does not allow the het gene to come out I don't think it is fair to ride on the coat tails of that other breeder and make claims as to a % of possible het. Until I prove my Pastel Het Albino (which came from Graziani) actually has the albino gene by pairing him up with my albino girl during our second breeding cycle and making an albino baby, any off spring from him would be listed as normal or pastel which would be visible. If talking to someone I might mention the unproven possibility of an albino het, but I don't feel I can base my price on things I am not 100% certain of. If I would and the breeder before me made an honest mistake (Maybe it is het lavander albino and he missed the lavender part while typing the description) I would never get him to make an Albino his whole life and the people I sold his first off spring to with the understanding that they had bought het regular albino snakes would have been told wrong and it would be my reputation getting slammed by how many off spring I sold while the breeder I bought the supposed het off of would only have one person pointing at him! Then if he has a big enough name he could hook that back around on you and make it look like it was all your fault. Not that the big guys would do that since after a couple times of it happening people would start questioning things.

It all comes down to trust when you buy any Het combo. I'm a new guy on the block, so I can't really expect people to pay for my word that something is! I need to offer some kind of proof or be 110% certain of what I am saying! If your a little guy always using the word of the big guys to prop you up, you will never get to the point they are at. The only way to get there is stand on your own word, but if you do that you better make sure your word is right! This is the only ethical way to do business.

Now this doesn't mean I won't call the other breeders for advice on different aspects of the business from husbandry, breeding, housing, and equipment.