Hello- first time poster. First time BP owner.
I have a 2020 BEL Mystic Lesser female as a pet that i enjoy. I’ve considered adding to my collection & exploring breeding. Its a lot to learn.
If you were to add a male to breed to above female, what morphs would you consider?
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I think the thing most breeders in general recommend that you know the market and how saturated it is in ball pythons, before making any decisions about breeding.
The usual next bit of advice is to breed for snakes you find beautiful so you keep the passion!
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Hello and welcome~
Here’s a good place to start for you:
That will help you know what genes can have issues and what you may want to avoid.
Personally, because you’re starting with a blue eye Lucy I would tend avoid the following genes:
Pied
Albino
Lesser/butter
They won’t cause any major issues like kinking, but BEL genes(not just lesser) likes to make small eyes in the pied and albinos and super lesser/butter can make big eyes.
I have seen some single BEL gene albino combos with small eyes, but usually for pied and albino the issues will be with 2 BEL genes
Otherwise… I think the most import thing is to watch some videos on yt or browse the market for animals that YOU want to produce.
Personally I have BEL, Hypo and Pied projects for me right now… Because I think they’re neat.
And as cmills mentioned, the market is super saturated right now so unless you’re prepared to keep the babies a while or sell for cheap… I’d avoid it. Also keep in mind possible vet visits and expenses as well.
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Given the over saturation of the ball python market at this time, I agree with what @cmills and @armiyana stated above.
However if you have plenty of space, money and time you can always breed and then care for the parents and babies until which time you find homes for the babies, if you want to part with them……
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I’m aware of the market & I’m in no hurry to breed anything.
I’m looking to add a male in the future, and should I breed them, I’m hoping to avoid producing $100 babies. I’m looking for opinions on what morphs i should consider when shopping for a male.
I like some of the bananas, clowns, leopards available. Just curious of what combos might produce well with a Mystic Lesser female.
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No worries! I certainly didn’t mean to offend, just as a first time owner I wasn’t sure if you were aware of the state of BP breeding in this economy and wanted it out there as quick as possible so it didn’t mess with your plans down the line
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That’s a great idea about breeding for higher dollar animals and producing animals that are in demand. I didn’t mean to offend either btw! I’m not a breeder because if I was I would literally have a whole house full of ball pythons because I could not let any of them go! Lol! 
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Welcome to the community! I think you’ll like it here, between our search function and our knowledgeable and helpful members, it’s a great place!
While I don’t have any experience with mystics or lessers or the combo, I can say that, in my opinion, it is a good time to pick up a male because prices for ball pythons are lowest I’ve seen since I began using Morphmarket. If you like dark morphs I’d pick something I like but a morph combo that will produce some decent offspring that are both unique and hold value. I’d pick up one with a recessive or two (like clown) and something like redstripe or a pattern disrupter like confusion, leopard or pinstripe. If you plan on selling any offspring and can afford it, a higher end morph would be a good idea.
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You could get another Mystic Lesser BEL and make more. Mystic Lesser BELs appear to be selling for $300-450 on MM. 50% of the offspring would be Mystic Lesser BELs, 25% would be Super Mystic BELs and 25% would be Super Lesser BELs. To me Mystic Lesser BELs look the same as Super Lesser BELs, but super Mystic BELs look quite different. I believe BELs sell easily in the pet trade.
Or if you got a Super Mystic BEL, 50% of the offspring would be Super Mystic BELs and 50% would be Mystic Lesser BELs. All the offspring would be easy to positively ID.
Basically you could stay completely in the BEL complex and hopefully pick morphs such that you can easily positively ID all combinations of the offspring.
I would start there, staying in the BEL complex. Research the BEL complex genes to see how unique various pairs of genes look. I personally think it’s important to be able to positively ID all offspring.
I do like Banana, Leopard and Clown, but I’m not sure how Banana or Leopard would look when paired with Mystic or Lesser. Research, research, research.
All that aside, as others have said before me, breed what YOU like, it’s the only way you’ll stay happy in and passionate for the hobby.
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BELs are probably one of the few ball pythons you can’t really over produce. Especially if you beat the market price a bit on the babies. They’re down to about $250-350 at most shows right now.
With Mystic at play, you’re going to get some patterned animals no matter what male you use. Not a bad thing, just not solid white snakes. To pair to a Mystic Lesser and get all white snakes you’d have to use a Super Lesser which are prone to macrophthalmia (bug eyes). Personally I’d use a Super Russo, Honey Russo, or Mocha Russo if primarily white snakes is the goal. Super Mystics, Mystic Russo, Mystic Mojave, and Special combos all have varying degrees if pattern.
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