Not that I am promoting it or dismissing it, but in today’s world of morphs waiting 3 years puts you behind the 8 ball (no pun intended Adam). With people working now with 2 and 3 gene animals on a regular basis and if you are just starting out (particularly with recessive Hets) if you are waiting till the girls are 3 years of age you will be on the back side of the curve, way back. Think about it. If your goal is to produce something like a Snow morph and you are starting with 1.1 Het Axanthics and 1.1 Het Albinos that you just bought this year you will finally be breeding for a chance at axanthics and albinos in 2011 and they will not be born until 2012. Now you have to raise them up to breed in 2015 for the double het babies in 2016. Raise them up 3 more years and your breeding them in 2019 season and getting babies in 2020. By 2020 other breeders will be working on their four recessive gene or more animals! While yes I think certain conditions should be met before breeding any animal, I also think you have to use some forward thought about your goals! Also on the same note since I have yet to experience everything in the hobby and am still learning (not that I think the learning will ever really stop) I tend to lean on sources and spend money where other people may not, such as right now all of our females and males see a vet to get a clean bill of health before they start breeding. One day maybe I will have a really good understanding of ball python health, but currently so many things exist that don't have readily visible signs an amateur such as I could miss I believe it is worth the money. Also my wife and I are discussing down the line after a female lays her eggs taking her back to the vet after a couple weeks of zoning for another check up on her health. (Most vets give a group discount if you take a large number of the same type of animal in at the same time, our last bill for 10 snakes read as a snake herd. Help I'm being stampeded by a herd of snakes! )

On a side note my wife is looking into going back to school for vet tech or an actual vet. This will be her third degree and I don't think she still knows what she want to do for a living once she grows up!