Well I got three absolutely gorgeous DG breeder females and I got them a nice Super OD male with loads of traits and hets but he got here and he’s not ready yet. He is only 600 grams. I may be able to get him up to weight but I’m not going to count on it. I’m open to other options for a back up male. What would you suggest for these ladies?
Thank you!
-Pearl
When you say tons of traits and hets on the Super OD, what are they? Unless he is at least Super OD het DG then I would consider a male that does carry DG.
As far as whatever other hets, if you were planning on holding any back you will need to shed test the offspring to see which ones have the het or just hold them back and test them.
It all basically boils down to what you are hoping to see. I assume with Super OD and Desert Ghost those are what you want in your mix. You can possibly consider adding another recessive. Otherwise Enchi or YB are nice traits to add to OD.
Thank you for your input! Ah yeah he’s a Pastel OD black head yellow belly phantom/Mojave het clown. I was going to get him a couple of OD clown females as well. I’ll def look into Enchi and Yellowbelly combined with DG and see what those look like. I’m really looking for nice colors that don’t fade as much as many do.
Have you tried the 600 gram male yet? It’s so early in the season i wouldn’t give up on him being ready. He may well already be ready to breed but if not I’ve seen quick weight gains feeding young males moderate sized meals twice a week. Could easily be 800 grams by late October if he likes to eat.
While not putting all your eggs in one basket depending on a young male is good i wouldn’t recommend picking up just any male you aren’t excited about for using this fall. Keep in mind if the females do go for 2026 with another male it reduces their odds of being ready again for 2027 if you really really want to use the 600 gram male then. So even if he isn’t ready until say March you might see his babies a lot sooner if you just leave the girls growing unbred until he is ready to breed them.
As far as an alternative/backup male I would recommend something with an axanthic gene based on how well axanthic and DG work together. Also preferably clown and DG at least het to get some visuals along the way. But that’s based on my goal to axanthic DG all pattern mutations and see if they are all as nice as the clown axanthic DG. Might not be everyone’s goal of course and assuming the females don’t have axanthic or a pattern gene would require testing and an extra generation making it a long term expensive project.
Likely to be an unpopular opinion for you but… Entirely too much of this hobby seems to run on the MLM mindset that you HAVE to breed to be a “real” keeper and this just encourages people to breed without putting real thought into it
My strong recommendation to you would be to become significantly more versed on what it is you really want to make for yourself, what combos you could make to get there, and how to properly identify everything you make. After that, think about how you are going to to care for all of the babies you produce, how you will house them, how you will feed them, and how you will get rid of all the ones that you do not want to keep (and “I will just put them on MM and they will sell no problem” is not the correct answer)
I am not saying all of this to be a jerk. This is coming from my multiple decades of being in this hobby. I also freely admit that I do breed some of my animals. However, I have answered all these questions for myself and I know my limits and my boundaries. The way you have phrased a few things in your post makes me feel like you have not really put that same thought into the matter
There is absolutely nothing wrong with going slow and taking your time. Learn your animals. Become a ‘student of the serpent’. After that, then think about whether or not you want (or need) to breed
Thank you for your kind and well thought out response. I will admit that I do have a touch of the snake fever and I DO need to slow down, absolutely true and I thank you for calling me out on that.
I really hope that I do NOT have a MLM mindset about this. MLM anything simply makes me gag. Oh goodness no, I am a fine artist by profession and I will say, with endless gratitude for my patrons, that I am not the starving kind. If anything I see a living art project. There is a particular type of royal python morphology that I find the most beautiful and you are so correct that I should be focusing on that.
I have kept a small handful of royal pythons going on, oh, probably fifteen years now and I am only getting around to the idea of breeding because I finally have a good and mostly reliable income stream to support it, also, I have only recently discovered the MorphMarket within the past two months or so and yes, it has excited my artistic, animal loving self in a big way.
I do have a fairly extensive background in animal husbandry in general, I was raised mostly by my grandparents on a ranch in Oklahoma. Grandpa was a country veterinarian and Grandma was big into wildlife rescue and rehab and I grew up first and foremost doing rescue and rehab of the wildlife of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. I started a wolf and wolf dog rescue and rehab when I was in my teens, and well, that was an experience in and of itself but I got out of that in my early twenties, around about the same time I got my first royal python.
That said, I am always, always open to learning MORE and I am not so proud and stubborn that I can’t consider good advice and adjust my attitude. I certainly appreciate your input.
Wow! You have quite a repertoire! I can honestly say imho of course that you are not diving in without being able to see the bottom of the gene pool! Little pun there. Sorry! 
The very best to you and your breeding aspirations! 
Bahahahaha! The bottom of the gene pool. lol! Puns always appreciated!
Yeah I mean I have kept five royal pythons for the past oh twelve or fifteen years but they have all been rescues that did NOT get rehomed 
as happens from time to time. I will certainly continue to do rescue and rehoming. I live in Northeast Oklahoma again after living on both U.S coasts and Australia for a time and there sure is a need here for rescue and rehoming, more so than more breeders, and I do understand the concern of overbreeding etc.
However, you know, I still plenty to learn, I am certain. At least I hope I do. I suppose that I should write an introduction post at some point soon!!! I do all kinds of creative work, my bread and butter is painting. I am not sure if I am allowed to post a link to my work on here, but if you have social media I am pearl.whitecrow.art on Instagram and TikTok.
I certainly do not expect to get rich breeding snakes lol…oh gosh, just helping to cover overhead for the cost of housing rescues and the time spent working with them and food etc would be great!
Thankfully I am at a point in life where I have plenty of space, I work for myself and make pretty good money but I have a lot of time to spare, so I reckon I am in a good place for it. <3
Thank you for your kind words @caron I sure appreciate ya.
Sadly, that is the best that BP will look and it will fade out as it grows. DG can help keep some of the yellows a little brighter and clean up the pattern a bit, but it will still be a lower contrast animal when it ages. If anything, take a look at the Pompeii morph combo as a baby and an adult. It’s a wild color shift and nowhere near what some people expect as they age.
Ideally look to breed for what the adult will be, not just a baby’s color.
I’d probably start by looking for another male with something OD, pastel, mojave and/or banana. I’d try to make sure they are visual or het DG so you can make more visuals. Then look to add in the morph you’re missing next time.
Also remember there’s a list of similar sounding genes that are not compatible to DG. Enhancer and DG are the same mutation, just different lines. Some breeders prefer not to cross them even though they are compatible.
Hypo is called Ghost, but not compatible with Desert Ghost. Orange Ghost is compatible with Hypo, it’s a line of Hypo that was line bred for more color.
There’s a couple other ghosts, but they tend to be more rare.
Desert is not Desert Ghost. Do not buy. It can cause infertility or worse, eggbinding in females.
Edit because you have beautiful work. I adore your pinups and eye for color! Thank you for sharing
Thank you so much! That’s some great info! I will definitely check out the Pompeii!
I could well step on some toes by saying this, and I do not mean it disrespectfully, but it has been my experience that one of the main reasons that people are looking to rehome their royal pythons ( you know, the REAL reason) is that they bought them as babies are weren’t told that those colors wouldn’t last.
This is why I am so interested in morphs that pretty much keep their coloring OR lack thereof. I understood that the Desert Ghost gene would pretty well help them keep their coloration into adult. Perhaps I was misinformed here? I guess I really need to see more adult examples of different morphs.
Somehow, even as someone who rescues, rehabs and rehomes royal pythons, I hadn’t heard of MorphMarket until a couple of months ago and had never really considered breeding up until the past month or so.
Over the years, it seems to me that some adults that keep wonderful coloration seem to be the Lavender Albino, Albino (yes, I know they are different genes lol) and the Bananas.
Thank you so much for your kind words about my work! I am currently working on a pinup piece with a big smexy snake 
Oh my goodness pearligig! Your artwork is intriguing! So popping with color! The woman with the long dark hair - is that you? I surely hope you will stay around! You will get plenty of advice here if and when you do decide to produce some “artwork” baby royals in the future!
Eventually I need to upload more to insta. I’ve been posting more on bluesky. I followed you on my noodle and (forgotten)art insta for now tho~
DG will definitely help with the colors overall but it’s still not perfect. Here’s a couple before and after on a couple of mine. One DG and some other morphs
Super vanilla pastel Desert Ghost het Orange Ghost (angry boy)
2yo Coral Glow Special Orange Ghost
A 1yr dinker gal of mine who was so deep orange she was almost red. Still a beautiful snake but oh man.
Just an interesting comparison on father/daughter. Both are OD Lesser, but the polygenic difference is big. Gal is 2yrs.
It’s probably a huge factor for some when they’re buying high contrast bright babies that dull out. If you know what to expect tho they’re all still great looking snakes.
Thank you so much caron! Yesss I do love the color but also the straight black and white work! Yes, I’m the lady with the long dark hair in the photos on my socials! I will surely appreciate whatever help and advice I can get as I start to move forward with breeding over the next couple of seasons. <3
You are very lovely my dear! And yes I do like the black and white artwork as well!
I was not calling you out specifically. I was more calling out a very insidious fact of the hobby that is all too frequently hand-waved away by people. One that has a notorious tendency to snag in the minds of newer people to the hobby because it is quietly pushed as “normal”, especially the Big Breeders
That is one of the reasons I make my warning to most new people, because I have been there myself. If you ask around I am sure a lot of the more long-term folks here will agree that at one point in time, they fell victim to the idea as well
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We have all been there
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Real talk… Odds are even against that. I do not think I have been in the black on my collection. Ever
I think a better way to frame it is, would you still be perfectly happy breeding if it meant giving away all the babies you decided you did not want to keep? I do not think I have sold a snake in the past four or so years. All the babies I made were either gifted away or traded to a local place for store credit
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Christina makes a very good point. That said, the changes are not always terrible. There are other ways to get similar colour palettes to that animal by going a different direction. Later today I will grab you some pics of a bunch of my animals of various ages that all started out looking simial to that one pictured and give you a better idea of how the ontogenetic change can come into play
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This is a great comparison, let me add to it with this pic which is a Butter (same as Lesser) OD hatchling straight out of the egg. Really gives you an idea of how the ontogenetic colour change can impact an animal
Wow at a glance I would have said pastel lesser. Wild pattern on that one
Yeah… There is something in the female that causes strange patterning to get thrown now and then
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As promised, the comparison pic. Ages are - hatchling, two years, four years, and ten years. Combos are: Asphalt Butter Enchi OD, Butter Enchi OD RedStripe, BlkPastel Butter Enchi OD, and Butter Enchi OD Pastel YB
That two year old coral glow special orange ghost is GORGEOUS
