When it comes to breeding reptiles the subject of finances, profit, business, etc. are often debated; Especially in regard to ball pythons. I'll admit, when I first started researching snakes the idea of breeding two animals each worth $400 and having a chance to produce a baby worth $700-$1000 was enticing. With a lot of reading/involvement (~4 years), and now having kept my snakes for over two years I can say I've been educated. The idea of making a living off of my hobby has really faded into fantasy. Not that I wouldn't love to do it, or that I couldn't, but I find that I'm not terribly interested in trying to plan out my breeding ideas in order to maximize profit. Coming up with a realistic, solid business plan isn't difficult, I just don't want to do it. What I want to do? Buy animals that fit the bill EXACTLY for what I'm looking for, and replicate/improve all the qualities I admire in the snake whether it's "popular" and expensive or not.
This has been crossing my mind pretty often with the BP breeding season in full swing. My favorite threads on the forums are the ones with hatching eggs, or seeing fresh hatchlings (SO COOL to see new combos when they happen!). I've had some ideas tumbling around in my head about line breeding though. I love me some 3, 4 and 5 gene eye candy, but my favorite snakes are the single or double gene animals that blow everything else out of the water.
In particular, I want to make some nice pastels. They're probably the most common morph aside from albinos, but they're a staple enhancing morph, and without fail I fall in love with every nice looking one I come across. I have a faint idea in the back of my head to start looking for very clean, very reduced normal ball pythons. Only two or three to keep the project in sane proportions for me (this is a hobby, not a living) but enough to breed them to the nicer examples of pastels I can find, and see exactly what characteristics of the normal parent come through.
Due to the nature of my project it means that I'll be keeping an eye out for any normals that fit what I'm wanting to experiment with, regardless of gender. It's a very odd feeling for me because if anyone were to ask for my thoughts on breeding, I'd never recommend the practice to anyone else. Normal males are "worthless" from a breeding standpoint (NOT saying they are worthless as living things) simply because morphs males are fairly easy to acquire for a very reasonable price, and you want to add to your genetic arsenal rather than simply extend what you have. A spider male to a lesser, pinstripe, and enchi would be much smarter than a normal to those three girls IF you are breeding to support yourself. And there's nothing wrong with that! It's smart, if you have nice looking animals to begin with you'll have some smokin babies, and (hopefully) it's combos that you wanted to produce.
This is mostly a brain spill on my part, with no real end point defined in my head. I'm somewhat apprehensive about doing something I know is backwards from what I'd advise anyone else to do, but it has a specific purpose. If it turns out that the pastel qualities aren't enhanced by being mixed with nice looking normals I'll scrap the project, but I've always want to at least try line breeding out. Should it play out like it does in my head, I think that it'll be absolutely worth the odd feeling
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