Reptile Genetics
February 13th, 2011 | Published in Reptiles
ball python genetics... not sure if i understand?
i read answers about genetics and im amazed about how much people know about the "bloodlines" of their BP... as far as me... i dont know anything about mine. aside from the fact that hes normal and no morph in him. i got him at a reptile show in KY.
ive thought about breeding him since hes such a good tempered snake but how far does the genetics play into breeding them? and how much does it matter? i more want to breed him for his temperament than anything.
As was previously said, temperament in snakes is not really a genetic thing. Ball pythons in general are very calm snakes and so it's not exactly something unusual. Before breeding please, please consider a few things.
There are thousands of ball pythons which are bred and do not find good homes. These snakes are often bought on impulse and end up in reptile rescues. There are so many unwanted ball pythons that there is really very little market for the babies. Any normal ball python babies are going to be very difficult to find good homes for, and if you do sell them you likely won't find a buyer for more than $20. These snakes are mass bred so there isn't market for "backyard bred" snakes.
A breeder rarely makes any money by breeding. It's even very difficult to come out even. Breeding almost always puts you in debt rather than profit. Consider the cost of buying an incubator, incubating substrates, moss for laying boxes, temp readers, and humidity readers. Also baby snakes MUST be housed separately. You have to provide adequate housing for each and every baby snake you hatch. You also have to feed them. That's a mouse a week for every baby snake.
Also baby ball pythons are NOTORIOUSLY picky eaters. It's common for these snakes to refuse to feed even on live fuzzy mice and often breeders will raise gerbils or african soft fur rats to entice babies to feed because these prey are more appealing to them.
Please reconsider breeding your snake. I'm not against breeding snakes and I definitely advocate captive breeding but there are already enough ball pythons out there to meet the demand (or way more than there is demand for).
As far as genetics go, most people who keep bps for pets don't care too much about bloodlines as long as the snake does look very healthy. The better and more well known a bloodline is, though, the more money it will sell for. There are breeders who are known for high quality snakes that can sell the babies for much more because of their reputation. So genetics play relatively no role as long as you're not attempting to produce morphs.
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