Breeder Info Request

Greetings all, I am new to the site and have always wondered and had questions about wanting to breed my Black Pewter Butter pos Het Pied. She is about 3 yrs old, but can’t find a breeder and don’t know much, I’m hoping I don’t get shamed for that but am interested in breeding her with hopes of maybe getting a pied or blue eye…

Does anyone have any info or if you can give me info that would be much appreciated.

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Welcome to the community! I am pretty bad with ball python genetics but some other people will definitely come along with tons of knowledge and experience! I hope we see you around more!

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Hi and welcome :slight_smile:
any blue eyed complex would give you some Blue eyed lusistic if odds play out…
Mojave, Lesser/butter, russo, etc.
One of the above with het pied might also do a pied…

Edit: check out morphmarket calculator for the odds

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Welcome! And what a pretty gal!

As a heads up, looking into how the genetics work will be the most important thing.
The downside is there’s a couple concerns to be aware of with your girl:

Lesser gene: If the male is carrying lesser or butter, there’s a chance for the resulting BEL to be born with bug eyes. Ideally look for a male with mojave or russo for a white snake.

Black Pastel: Super Blk pastel or Blk Pastel/Cinnamon can result in kinked offspring.

Pied Blk Pastel: You might end up with a mostly white pied. Though I think they’re pretty cute. If you do risk the chance of an 8ball pied, they may end up hatching all white.

Lesser pied: Lesser pieds also tend to be very high white and can also have the opposite of bug eye- bead eye / microphthalmia. BEL pieds especially are known for it, but even single gene lesser is an issue with pied.
EDIT: Also the eyes can come out looking albino pink, not BEL

Just some food for thought while you look into finding a potential male somewhere for her!

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How can I potentially search for a breeder? Is that market pretty hard to find/trust?

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Thank you and I’m hoping to post more content if I can figure this site out. It’s a bit confusing being today is my first day.

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Check ratings, (quantity and quality) also how long they have been members, its all on their profile, and ask questions +
This might help too -

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The site can be a little confusing but after little bit of playing around on the site it will become really easy to use!

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Just for clarification - are you looking for someone to breed your snake, or are you looking to add another snake to your collection to breed to this one?

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I recommend using the calculation calculator to see your odds if you trying to hit a specific snake. When you find a snake you’d like to breed to your female, you can click on the stores name and see who the breed actually is. Most will have some sort of reputation, you can check out previous reviews from other buyers who purchased from that specific seller, and you can see their social media links if they have them linked up on their account.

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I am going to repeat the warnings that Armiyana highlighted

  • the double visual BluEL Pied results in microphthalima
  • SuperButter and Butter/Lesser have a likelihood of bug-eyes
  • SuperBlkPastel and BlkPastel/Cinny have a tendency toward kinking and duck-billing
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This is an important clarification

It is very rare that another keeper will want to join in to a breeding program with someone, even other well-established long-time keepers. Your better bet is to purchase another animal and raise it up to breed to your existing female. I would recommend more toward getting a younger animal and raising it up to breeding size over buying an already adult animal as it gives your new acquisition time to acclimate to the “rhythm” of your room and also give you more time to learn both your animals which greatly helps in successful breeding

I also want to advocate that you strongly consider everything that comes with breeding. Breeding your animals is one of the greatest stresses you can cause them and there is a (very low but real) chance you may lose an animal. You also have to be ready to house and care for all of the resulting babies for potentially a very long time. Producing animals does not guarantee that you will be able to sell said animals. I had animals from my first breeding that I had to care for for five years before I eventually found a home for them.

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No one here is going to “shame” you for anything. This community is not like that. That being said, @t_h_wyman, imho, has given you the best advice so far concerning being a responsible breeder if you choose to breed. There are between 38 and 40 thousand ball pythons for sale on MM alone on any given day. The ball python market is saturated. If you don’t already have potential homes for potential babies, you need to have a good plan in place for taking care of a bunch of snakes, which includes housing, feeding and a good reptile vet on hand. Another thing to consider is getting the babies eating. I accidentally found myself with 11 boa babies one morning due to stupidity on my part because I am not a breeder! Lol! It was a challenge to keep track of who ate and who didn’t, trying live and/or frozen thawed etc.

I was extremely lucky that a pet store near me brought 8 of them. I gave 2 away to friends and kept 1. The whole process took at least 2 months.

I felt sorry for the momma because she was not herself for awhile and I wasn’t sure she would revert back to her sweet demeanor. She got through it though and came back to me but I was told that not all female snakes do after giving birth, if they are pets first.

Anyway sorry for the rambling post but I as a pet owner, have first hand experience with the breeding process and unless you are prepared for it, it’s not all that………

But whatever you decide, best wishes to you! :wink:

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How likely? I have got 3 that are ok with no bug-eyes. i don’t see bug-eyes on the market often at all but i chose mine for normal eyes.

Is it heredity or more likely from a bug-eyed?

Also are there health problems or other problems with bug-eyes or is it just an esthetics thing that’s personal preference and in the eye of the beholder?

To be honest, I would not mind if bug-eyes did not create issues,
Just asking for education and future breeding plans

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The bug eyes are far less likely than they used to be I think. I think a lot of breeders narrowed down the issue by not breeding pairs that had bug eye offspring and future out crossings…I wish I could give you a number. But if you look at the market right now… 4 out of 20 for sale are bug eyes. If you look up Super Butter or super lesser. Looks like about the same odds for butter/lesser bel
It’s still a number high enough to make me was to avoid the odds.

But… The issue with pied and butter/lesser is much more of an issue with most having bead eye. Even a good number of the single genes.

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Never ran the numbers but shooting from the hip I would say 1:10, maybe 1:20, odds. But that is just a guess
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It is hereditary inasmuch as it is directly associated with the gene, but a parent having/not having bug eyes is no indicator as to likelihood
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Mostly just aesthetics. There is probably a greater likelihood of damage to the eye from scraping against something simply because of them being out further, but the animals generally have decent proprioception so they are not banging them about willy-nilly

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