I own a calico dragonfly (pastel, fire, pinstripe) male and I’m stuck on what I want to breed him to/with.
My only female is a cinnamon champagne. And I’m also still growing my collection, so any and all ideas, thoughts, tips, etc I am all ears. This is a first time passion of mine, and it’s kind of overwhelming how much I’ve grown to love the reptile community and ball pythons!
So thank you in advance =)
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My first suggestion will always be figure out what you like and are passionate about and draw out a project you’ll enjoy. I like to draw out my projects so I can easily visualize what I need and want to work towards. Make sure you have short and long-term goals. It will be more fulfilling that way. Look at MorphMarket history and figure out what combos you like. Plug in a million combos into the calculator and see what appeals to you most
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I agree, figure out which morphs you like and work with those. With how many morphs are in the male you might want to limit the morphs in the female (or have them recessive) so you can identify the hatchlings.
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Unpopular advice, but advice I still give every time I see this type of question - You do not have to breed an animal just because it is there.
All too often I see people breeding “just because” rather than putting actual thought into what they are doing/working toward.
Think about what it is you really want to see in your collection and then work toward making that. Using your couple listed animals as an example, if you do not like Pewters then it would probably be a bad idea to pair these two animals. Because you might get Pewters. Maybe a lot of Pewters. Then you have to keep them and raise them until you can sell them all. And if you do not like Pewters, then every day you go in to work on your animals and have to look at them, you slowly start to lose your interest. With that lost interest comes a lowering of the care you give. Then you have less robust or dirty animals, which further kills you interest. The cycle feeds back on itself and before you know it, you no longer enjoy the hobby.
There is nothing wrong with waiting for the perfect animal to come along to complete a pair. There is nothing wrong with taking three or four or five years to grow the animals up before breeding them. As anyone who has been in this hobby for a while will tell you, it is a marathon and not a race
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I was guilty of this for a long time! And can say finding out what you really like and not rushing to breed what you have and planning out pairings and setting project goals is the way to go.
This☝️ In my experiences waiting the extra time to fully grow them out results in bigger and healthier clutches and in turn hatchlings. Not to mention I feel it’s better for the females long term health
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In addition to all of that, even if you are just planning on breeding for your own personal satisfaction and not making a business out of it, you’re still going to have to find homes for any hatchlings you don’t plan on keeping. Look at how many ball pythons are for sale on MorphMarket right now. Pinstripe, fire and pastel are probably the most common and readily available morphs anywhere, so how are you going to set yours apart whe you’re going up against breeders who already have a solid reputation for quality animals?
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This is a fantastic question. I personally have been brainstorming up some ideas of how to make my business unique and fresh.
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We all started out somewhere and this is a conundrum faced by all at some point. I found being active on Insta the best way to market and get exposure. also look at your price point. New small breeders cant command the price tags as the big players, years of experience, reputation and breeding stock all inflate prices. Don’t be cheap but remember to be humble.
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That is truth! This will be a long haul but it will be awesome and you will have a ton of new experiences.
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