Hello! So, I am curious and I want to know what made you all want to start breeding ball pythons! I will tell you about why I wanted to start as well, and it’s mostly because I love reptiles (or animals in general really) and I love learning about genetics and seeing what the different morphs do when combined with each other, and a ball python seems to be one of the best to learn about those things. I also just love raising babies and seeing them grow and thrive in my care, which probably came from being around kittens and puppies most of my life lol. I do want to be able to make a bit of money back from it if I can, but that is a secondary thing for me, I have a pretty good job so money isn’t really an issue and, honestly, getting into this hobby has used more of my money than anything and I still have much more I want to get lol!
I cant afford some morphs we want, and the ingredients are cheaper. So we bought the ingredients for what we want. It is definitely a fun and exciting way to get what we want.
I am going to be getting into the breeding game in the next year or so simply for the morphs. I want to create something really special and unique. I could careless if it’s a worlds first or what, but something that’s at least special to me. I’m not really looking to earn a lot (if any) money back from breeding since my collection will be very selective and small.
Ball pythons is something easier to maintain, learn from, and experiment with. It’s also given me a new found passion and thrown me into a hobby that continuously makes you grow and learn. It’s also helped me some with my major depression. Having a commitment to something and wanting to possibly see it grow keeps those “dark” thoughts at bay. Not very much in my case, but any little bit helps.
Havnt really done a whole lot of breeding as of yet but that’s going to change soon! So the way I got started was when my uncle took me to a reptile show as a young kid and I was blown away at how one snake can look so different even though they were all the same species. Amd when I realized I could start breeding and even have a morph or morph combo named by me I was absolutely hooked. And that first reptile show was 9 years ago and I’ve been keeping reptiles ever since and I dont see myself stopping anytime soon.
Very cool! I think that it is important to have hobbies to kinda keep your mind off bad thoughts as well, it’s another reason why I want to start, to keep me busy when I’m not at work since I am very much a homebody, I just sit around and think too much and as I have gotten into this hobby, I have been going out to reptile expos and it just gets me out the house and interacting with new people which is awesome!
I love reptile expos! So many different exotic animals, and not just snakes! I always try to go to one if it’s relatively close by and I don’t have to work, though I always seem to come home with a new animal afterwards lol!
I got into ball pythons 10 years ago. Started with a normal female that I raised up from a baby. Watching her grow , and turn into a small 5 foot monster was amazing I enjoyed every second of it. Then I purchased a hypo male, my 1st morph , and from then I was hooked. Wanting to work solely with recessive genes, and spider here I am 10 years later loving every second of it. I keep a tiny collection to many on here. I keep 16 animals 2 of them are fresh holdbacks I hatched out this season. I enjoy spending time with my animals, and they aren’t a business to me. I don’t care if I make a dime back from my animals. I buy quality animals that I love, and will enjoy taking care of the rest of their lives . They bring me calm and peace. I enjoy handling them , and cleaning them. I really couldn’t imagine life without them. Awesome pets and such a rewarding experience seeing babies pip.
Back in 2006 I could not justify a $15000 Pied as a pet so I bought some hets for $1200 and made my own, got hooked.and being doing this ever since
As a kid I was the type who loved to go outside and flip over rocks and see all the creepy crawlies, catch lizards, find snakes, and generally learn about animals. I kept a number of small reptiles (and other non-traditional pets) as a kid. What I actually ended up wanting in high school was a Jungle Carpet Python, but my parents said “no way” to that. If I wanted a python, they would let me get a Ball Python like what the neighbors had, but I didn’t want a dumb Ball Python…
Fast forward 10 years or so I haven’t kept animals of any kind: My friend says he is getting a Ball Python - do I want to go check them out with him? I asked him, “Why do you want a ball python? They seemed pretty lame when I was a kid.” I went along anyways.
What were all these snakes?! So many different patterns and colors - all I knew of was just the brown and black normals! My interest piqued in seeing more of these so-called “morphs.” By the end of the day out there I realized that ball pythons are the puppies of the reptile world. They have the cute puppy jowls, big doey eyes, and just the right amount of derp to be absolutely lovable. On the ride home, snake in a box on my lap, I muttered, “damnit, I’m going to get one too aren’t I…”
Then I searched the internet for morphs, and my mind was truly blown with how far this hobby has really gotten. And by how much still looks to be undone. Eventually I bought my first snake, a mystic potion girl, named Chanterelle. But I found that even after buying her, I couldn’t stop from learning about more morphs.
After having Chanterelle for a year and really enjoying it, I started buying more morphs that I really liked with the hopes of breeding them and bringing something unique into the hobby one day. After 3 more years of growing up these babies, I’m finally hatching my first clutches this year!
When I got my first snake, I didn’t really intend on breeding at first, but as I got more into morphs and genetics, I began building more of a collection of genes I wanted to work with. It really came to the purchase of my first boy: that joy of finding the perfect, beautiful, healthy snake, bringing them home and raising them up. It’s like adopting a new family member, and I want to be able to say I’ve given someone that same experience, that they’re happy with the newest member of their family and are eager to see them thrive!
I got my first female normal back in August of 2018. I never intended to breed myself, but after learning about all of the cool morphs I decided I’d like to breed my own.
My second ball python was a scrawny female pinstripe, which sadly passed away shortly after I got her (this is why you avoid chain pet store purchases!)
I’m now up to 13 ball pythons and one boa, and will be trying for my first clutch or two this year.
My two pairings I have planned:
Banana Yellowbelly x Pastel het Axanthic VPI
These two have already locked 3 times! Hoping for some pastel bananas 
Butter Spinner x Butter
This pairing I’ll only do once I’m confident that the female is healthy again. She’s currently still getting treatment for an infection in her jaw area (though I suspect there’s a hardened abscess in her jaw, as the lumps are firm to the touch. If so, I think they need to be removed before she’ll get better.)
Once I do pair them, I’m hoping to get some super butters, and maybe a single gene pinstripe to honor the one little girl I lost.
The Spider made me do it!
I have 2 sons. My oldest son has trisomy 21, autism, non-verbal and partially deaf. My youngest son brought home a spider BP. She had a severe head wobble that affected her ability to eat. My son gave up on her. I didn’t, I have experience in this area thanks to my oldest son. He taught me patience and persistence. I read everything I could find about genetic defects in BP’s and all the theories and experiences people had. I worked with her for close to 3 months trying to figure out how to help her survive and hopefully thrive. I learned her body movements and tried to predict her off balance strike and tried to move the prey in the right direction. I tried different prey sizes, different temps, different conditions. I became obsessed with her like I’m obsessed with my family. She would only strike once or twice and then she would give up. If she did get it right and coiled up with the rodent, she would lose track of it and start wobbling bad and give up again. She was getting weak and lethargic, I thought she was going to die, but if she was going to die it wouldn’t be from the lack of me trying!
When my son got her she was about 150 grams and was going on 3 months of not eating. I didn’t give up. Now she is just under 1000 grams and never misses a meal. The head wobble is gone, she still cork screws a little, but the wobble is gone. She likes to periscope about 7” high and holds complete still for minutes on end, like she’s proud and showing off, she doesn’t tilt her head left or right, it’s completely square and on point. Don’t ask me to explain it, I can’t. I did stop taking advice from others and started listening to her based-on body language. Most of the things I ended up doing turned out to be the opposite of what I was reading.
She lives like a queen and found her forever home. She is a true lap snake now, loves to come out and chill with the family.
Like my children have done to me so many times, she helped fuel a desire I’ve always had, but forgot about, working with snakes. Now I’m slowly and persistently moving towards breeding snakes. Gives me something else to look forward to as retirement grows closer.
That’s a great story, I have a spider ball python myself and I was lucky in that it has almost no noticable wobble at all, might miss a strike every now and then but really not much more than any of my other snakes. I really think that stress plays a big factor in how bad a wobble is but that is a different topic that I will probably ask about in a different post lol.
I love banana, axanthic, and pinstripe stuff lol, I don’t have any pinstripe yet but I do have a young male banana super cinnamon that I plan to put with my calico enchi girl next year!
That’s exactly how I feel! I love watching them grow and thrive and I want to share that experience with other people. It would also be nice to be the reason that someone decides to give snakes a chance instead of hating or being scared of them.
I really can’t wait to have my first clutch and see the little ones poke out the egg! It’s very important to buy the things you like in my opinion, if not then why even bother breeding in the first place? Yeah others might like the morphs but I want to be able to look at my snakes and be blown away by how awesome I think they are, so even if they don’t sell then at least you can still enjoy them!
Haha that’s how I feel about stuff like the sunset and monarch morphs right now! I love the look of them but I can’t afford to buy one right now, unless I test my luck and get some 50% hets to try and prove out but then I run the risk of them not proving out.
I started for the money. I’m looking to get rich quick…
(just kidding)
As a kid growing up in South Carolina, I would love turning over rocks and logs to see what I could find, catching lizards and frogs was a bit of a pastime for me lol. I remember catching a spider once and keeping it in an enclosure in my room, feeding it bugs and watching do it’s thing was very interesting to me. The amount of morphs in the ball python world is just incredible, and we seem to constantly be finding new ones, I can’t wait to see what the hobby will look like in a few years!
Hey, there’s merit in honesty lol. If you are really good at marketing, planning, and managing money then anything is possible just don’t forget to take proper care of the animals and try not to cut too many corners! 