Have you ever gone to a reptile show and questioned why some identical morphs look better on some breeder’s tables than others? Have you questioned why they are priced differently? When searching for exceptional ball pythons for pets or as potential breeding stock, the motto “you get what you pay for” certainly has value.
When breeding ball pythons for the best representation of a particular morph or combo, one should first scrutinize the founding stock. There are good and bad examples of every morph and combo, and when setting breeding goals, it makes sense that the first step is to acquire the best looking animals to try and produce the best looking hatch-lings.
No other ball python morph in this hobby has the credit for the creation of the most combos than the co-dominant pastel jungle morph commonly referred to as pastels. Lets face it, yellow ball pythons morphs are simply breathtaking and you need the infusion of the pastel jungle gene or in its super form, the super pastel, to make yellow snakes.
With the modern price of low to high grade male pastels in the $75 to $150 range, other hobbyist’s jaws drop when we mentioned we paid $1500 for an F3 male back in 2005. What is an F3, they ask? Well F3 in a genetic term representing third generation. In the case of our pastel jungle male, three generations of selectively breeding the most colourful and clean specimens from pastel x pastel resulted in a snake that browned out minimally with age, and retained exceptional colour. This is one of the founding sires in our collection who has passed on his genes to progress the quality of our collection today. At shows people have asked us why our bumble bees express such vivid yellow colour and how clean they look with minimal speckling compared to others. Well its all about selective breeding we say.
In the evolution of breeding animals such as horses, cattle, dogs, cats, fish and reptiles, the finest specimens are due to the passionate efforts of a breeders selective eye. In the ball python hobby, selective breeding has its role in developing beautiful examples of living art. Think about it next time you wander at a vendors booth at your next reptile show.