So, this is my first ball, I didn’t plan on getting him, I actually found him left behind in an apartment that had been vacant for almost five months. He’s a male I’m 99% sure, his name’s Sylvester 
I’m interested in giving breeding a go, and would like to at least narrow down the possibilities if possible. Thanks!
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Nice snake! From those pics I don’t see anything on the belly to say it is a yellow belly complex. It does have a nice clean belly! It has a interesting pattern and some real nice blushing on the back! Normals can be quite variable, and to me it looks like a normal or there may be a small chance it is a subtle co dominant morph such as a blitz, but I would definitely lean toward normal. By the way did you probe or pop your snake to identify the sex, if not ball python sexes are too similar to really tell what they are visually. Very nice and interesting looking ball python though, enjoy your new pet!
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Welcome! Beautiful snake. I have no experience with BPs but it looks pretty normal to me.
Also you said you were interested in breeding, have you looked into what that entails? I do not suggest breeding this particular snake, the sheer number of normal BPs is why animals like yours get abandoned in apartments. It’s hard to even give them away. You have no idea on the health, history, genetics, etc of this snake and likely all you’d get are more normals.
There’s also a lot more to breeding than most people realize, so if you haven’t looked into the expenses, markets, supplies required, I suggest researching at least a year before moving on. Not trying to be a buzzkill, but this isn’t something to take on lightly.
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I agree with @noodlehaus. I would make him a pet, not a breeder for all the reasons stated. After all, the poor thing was abandoned for 5 months. He (or she) deserves a lot of TLC and love.
It’s a very pretty little snake! Congratulations on your find! 
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I forgot to mention that I found him there over a year ago! Not only did he not have food or water that whole time, there was a live mouse in a cage next to him living off of a pile of birdseed. First thing I fed him lol
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He was pretty small when I found him, maybe two feet tops, he’s 42 inches long now, roughly. Has never refused a meal unless the rat was too big or too small. Other than the first thing I tried to feed him, which was a f/t mouse. Never been able to get him to eat anything dead
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Wow! How sad I feel for Sylvester! I am so glad you found him! 
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It sounds like you are making up very quickly for all the neglect he has endured! I am glad he is gaining weight and growing again!
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I didn’t have him probed or popped, but I read that male’s tails have this slight bulge right before the very tip just tapers off and he’s got that. I read that that bulge is the male genetals when retracted in. Idk how true that is, but apparently the females tails just taper down nice and smoothly, and I also read that males tend to have smaller heads.
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Me too honestly, I was in a pretty dark place when I found him, and it might sound dumb, but I think having something to care for and the fact that he was relying on me kept me going. And then when he started getting his color back and started growing and shedding it was really rewarding he’s so docile, at first I was trying to come up with a more badass sorta exotic sounding name for him, but none I thought of fit him
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No, it doesn’t sound dumb at all! I had a very similar experience with the sweet little dog I have now. I was headed south very quickly but Rudy changed that.
Sylvester needed you, no doubt about that. But you needed him too! No matter whether I they are finned, feathered, furred or scaled, animals are blessings to those who need them, like you and me and others as well.
Enjoy Mr Sylvester!!! 
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I agree with the others, looks normal. Unless you plan on keep all the offspring, I would not breed. Lucky snake that you found him in time.
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Congrats on getting your first snake! Always fun to introduce people to the wide world of reptile ownership. I agree with the others, please become very very educated before even considering breeding, its a massive undertaking that requires a ton of knowledge, but until then in the future, enjoy Sylvester as a great, pretty pet!!
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I have been doing research for some months now, and I’m confident that I’d be able to breed a clutch, and keep all the environmental conditions in check etc, I’m still just having a hard time knowing the differences between some of the more basic looking morphs, however that might just be because I only have pictures on the internet to go off of at this point and some written descriptions. I’ve watched him to see if he ever corkscrews or wobbles etc over the last year and a half or so that I’ve had him, and I haven’t seen anything that makes me think he’s got any of that going on. I was thinking about just getting a real distinct morph to breed him with, I’ve honestly been leaning toward pied, cuz then even if Sylvester doesnt have any hidden genes, isn’t het for anything etc, then, oh well I’ll just have a bunch of normal pieds and prob some normal het pied,etc. And I think that’d be a pretty satisfactory first clutch, no? Like I said I’ve been doing research but I’m obviously no expert and if you guys giving me advice are experienced breeders, I’m all ears(eyes)! Any solid advice is much appreciated either way
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And I’m I right to think that if normals vary so much, you could potentially breed either new or existing morphs out of some of the more unique examples? I mean how did they come about in the first place otherwise?
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Breeding a normal to a pied will give you only normal looking offspring that are het pied
There IS genetic testing available to find out if he is carrying het pied or het albino, but chances on this rescue being such are slim to none.
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ditto what @armiyana said about the pied/albino/any other recessive morph; their offspring would be 100% het (recessive) if the visual recessive is paired to a normal. lots to unpack though and the community is super good about providing info and help. I myself have only been in the hobby for about four years and there are lots more experienced people on here than I am!
to your second point, that’s extraordinarily rare, the odd ones you see called “dinkers” are basically normals or another common gene with some odd variant that has about a 1 in a 1000+ chance of actually being a new visual morph/gene. I myself have never messed with dinkers. Most of the common morphs like enchi or mojave were imports originally that breeders line bred to prove out inheritable, and there are some folks who have created new morphs over years and years of selective breeding but that’s a super expensive route to even attempt with low odds of success.
For me I’ve found that its best to pick a handful of goal colors and/or patterns to breed out (BELs, a few recessives which I’ve yet to obtain, and really dark morphs even though I’m currently breeding my banana leo this year) and roll with it. With Sylvester being a normal it could be fun to get a really high dollar four or five gene female to pair to him and then you would have a nice array of hatchlings that would have pretty recognizable traits. Remember albino, pied, DG, clown etc are all recessive so babies would be het not visual. and be careful (down the road) about dangerous combos like allelic breedings like super spider, spider champagne, super cinny/BP, 8 ball, list goes on. Good luck and hope this gives you some good ideas!!
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While he seems like a cutie, given that you know nothing about his background and that he is normal/wild type, it would be best not to breed him. There’s already a massive oversaturation of low end and wild type ball pythons that unless you have a solid plan of what to do with the babies and are able to produce something that people want, it’s best not to.
As mentioned, you will not get pied babies if you breed him to a pied, you will get wild types that are het for pied, as piebald is a recessive trait.
No, the chance of you generating a morph out of a normal is slim to none unless you magically get some kind of de novo mutation happening. Not sure what the likelihood of that is and theroetically it could happen, but I haven’t ever heard of a case in captivity. You snake can really only pass on the traits it carries. In this case, normal is the absence of any morph. Most of the morphs we know were pulled from the wild or farm raised ball pythons as they were recognizably different than the standard. Certainly there are subtle phenotypes floating around that could be proven out, but unless it breeds true and has a reliable enough phenotype to be consistantly identified, it isn’t really going to be characterized/labeled
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Welp, everything you just said makes perfect sense. I guess he’ll just be a pet, but damn I feel like after all he’s been through he deserves to at least get laid once in his life 
hard knock life
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As others have stated above, given that there are tons of ball pythons on the market right now, unless you have potential/confirmed buyers lined up, you might find yourself stuck with a bunch of baby pythons and no homes for them. Times are pretty tough for a lot of folks right now and it’s going to get worse. It would be different if there was a lucrative market right now for the type of snake you have but there just isn’t.
I am not trying to bring you down in any way. I just want right thing for Sylvester and for the potential off spring you are contemplating……
All the best!
Caron
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