I want to get Ivy (a normal ball python) to breed with Lemon (a lemon blast ball python) I want to have a slightly better idea of what their offspring would look like and google is not being very helpful. Anyone who knows what this interesting pair would make please inform me, it would be greatly appreciated!!!
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The only thing you would get from that pairing is a mix of normals, lemonblasts (pastel pinstripe), pastels, and pinstripes. You can only get out what you put in.
Given the state of the market and oversaturation of normals and common lower end morphs, I would strongly reccomend against this pairing.
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I like to use the MorphMarket calculator to see what offspring would come from a certain pairing. You can then click on which morphs they show you and see pictures of said snakes. If that makes sense.
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I would advise against this especially right now.
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Devil’s advocate here but has the price of normals and low end morphs really dropped much or is it mainly the middle and above? I think it’s breeding investors and not pet people who care about the state of the market.
Of course the counter is that the low end stuff never covered the feed bill. Most of what I produce finds homes easily in the pet market but maybe I’m lucky in my local demand for normals. They used to import over 100k of those a year remember. While they certainly aren’t making me anything the normals and common morphs are for me a byproduct I don’t mind making along the way to modest future goals. But I do suppose there is more low end stuff being produced now along with everything else so maybe the pet market is close to saturation too and certainly it isn’t profitable.
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Really it comes down to “Do you already have someone lined up to sell these to (e.g. relationship with pet store or wholesaler), or are you trying to hatch pets to raise 5-10 more snakes for many years on your own?”
If not, I think this pairing will probably end up more stress and trouble than it will be fun and rewarding.
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I totally agree with @crypticoils-pythons and @chesterhf . Unless you have buyers/friends who will give good homes to your baby snakes, you should not breed your adult snakes just for kicks and grins. There are WAY TOO MANY bps out there on the market right now and money is tight for a lot of folks. So it would be much better to leave this breeding project alone.
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Agreed. But I would add — breeding for pleasure and developing your collection is ok if you willing to hold on to them and care for them for as long as it takes to get good homes.
But you have to be willing to possibly loose money too doing that.
That’s where I am currently.
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Would be hard to get a firm commitment from a pet store on animals you might produce in 6 months but I suppose it is prudent to at least ask around and gauge interest first. I’ve found chain pet stores never buy from local breeders (all decisions are made at the corporate level). Also, some states have government suppression of small business like PACFA that might even prevent local pet stores from buying from a small breeder.
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Yes that’s a great option as well, which could however result in costing more money……
If you are relying on google for info, you’d probably best leave the breeding to others
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Thank you!
My 22nd year breeding ball pythons and I use Google to find new info all the time. Just tonight I changed some breeding plans based on new info I found via a search.
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