New snake owner!!

Hey guys I'm fairly new to the forum and to owning snakes I've got a two year old ball python and a red tail boa thats about seven mnths. I'm wondering if there's a website or somewhere I can find out more about the genetics of them. I'd like to breed in the future but don't want to go into it blind. Thanks!!

Nice to meet you, Kimmie.

There are several websites out there. I'm rather fond of ball-pythons.net and Fauna Classifieds, myself but I'm sure we could probably answer many of your questions right here. What would you like to know about your new guys?

It was nice to meet you today Kim. Glad I could help you out with your red tail! Also glad to take another customer from Pet Smart lol.

It was nice to meet you too and thanks again for all your help!! Yea no more petsmart for me lol!! Ok I talked to Gina a lil about it today but it's gonna take my lil pea brain awhile to grasp all the details, for instance if I decide to breed my red tail she's sposed to be het for albino and ivory I think the albino is 66% and the ivory is 34%?? Don't even know where to go with that lol!!

kimmie79 wrote:

It was nice to meet you too and thanks again for all your help!! Yea no more petsmart for me lol!! Ok I talked to Gina a lil about it today but it's gonna take my lil pea brain awhile to grasp all the details, for instance if I decide to breed my red tail she's sposed to be het for albino and ivory I think the albino is 66% and the ivory is 34%?? Don't even know where to go with that lol!!

Ah, possible hets can be aggravating to deal with. The percentage given is the probability that the animal is carrying the recessive gene. A 100% heterozygous animal is produced by pairing a homozygous (visual morph) with a non-het. A 66% het is produced when both parents are 100% het for a recessive trait. A 50% het is produced when one parent is a 100% het and the other is a non-het. You'll have to prove them out as true (100%) hets when they're adults by pairing them with a homozygous (visual morph) partner - if visual morphs are produced in the clutch then you can drop the "possible" and be assured that your animal is a 100% het. Hope that made sense.

Ok surprisingly I think I actually kind of got that!! I've looked at the sites you mentioned also and they've been very helpful so hopefully I'll get a handle on it pretty soon lol!!

Happy to help.

If you're looking to jump into a breeding project, you'd be better off going for 100% hets or visual animals to be certain that you're actually working with carrier animals. It can be fun proving out possibles, though. Just don't be surprised if they don't prove out and you find that they're just normals.

I'd love to try breeding and would def start with the ball python but I just dont know quite enough about it yet. He's a little over two yrs give or take a few mnths he was given to me and I'm not sure exactly, but I've also got to get some more tanks or racks or something, so I've got a little ways to go and alot more to learn!!

I am working on two books on ball pythons: one for keepers, and one for breeders. I've almost got the keeper one ready to publish, and the breeding one will be next. There's also some basic info on my website as well, though not so much of the genetic stuff . . . more like when to start cycling them, what to expect when eggs are coming, etc.

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Ok great!! I'll def check out your site and Gina had told me that you were getting ready to finish your book. I'd love to have a copy! Just let me know when they're ready and how much!!