ball python female

Just picked up a queen bee morph ball python girl and had a few questions. I have been breeding balls for about a year but mostly lower end morphs and I still consider myself a newbee so far. My question is what is an estimated value for a queen bee female that weighs about 325 grams. And also im debating splurging and buying a nice male for her to breed to in the future and was wondering what would be the best to pair with her and what the possible outcome colorwise would be. I do not know her full genetic background which is frustrating. i was told most queen bees have similar genetics? Either way I'm happy just to have this girl around since she is so sweet. I was just curious.also curious about a male my sister got. She picked up her first ball at the expo this August and got a high gold male. I told her I would ask the "pros on the reptile site" what would be a good future girlfriend for him to produce the most colorful babies.

saphdrag99 wrote:

I do not know her full genetic background which is frustrating. i was told most queen bees have similar genetics?

The "queen bee" is the trade name of the morph that is a combines the pastel, lesser, and spider genes.  Some of them are made using the butter gene instead of the lesser, but in my opinion, they do the same thing visually.

No reason to be confused about anything here, unless of course you bought a spider that someone told you was a queen bee.   Look up queen bee on World of Ball Pythons and you'll be able to figure it out.

As far as market value goes, female queen bees are about $225 on the low end and $300 on the high end.  You'll most likely find them on the lower end of the scale, since as a hobby, we are all in the business of collectively screwing ourselves as much as possible.

Thank you so much for the info! I looked her up and she definitely looks like a queen bee. I picked her up at the expo when my little sister got her high gold. Since the queen bee is mostly a combo of the three or four genes you mentioned what would be a good future breeder for her then? Like I said I'm not really familiar with the newer fancier morphs. I just have a pair of not-so-flashy het spiders that look like normal but have thrown some different looking babies once in a while. I'm just coming out from under the rock so to speak and checking out all the new colors and trying to learn as much as I can along the way.

Whoah Whoah Whoah.  Slow down.

The queen bee is not "mostly" "three or four" genes.  It is created from pastel/spider/lesser OR pastel/spider/butter.  Period.

Also, there is no such thing as a "het spider."  I hope that you did not buy an animal because you were told it was "het for spider."  An animal is either a spider or its not.  The spider gene is a visual, non-recessive trait.

Not really sure if you are looking to breed ball pythons seriously or just keep morphs for fun, but I recommend reading up before you start spending any more money.   Just a recommendation.

Ok. Will do more reading. Like I said i am still learning and there is so much to learn sometimes stuff gets jumbled around in my head. The two i said were het spider were a friends that i got by default that i don't breed seriously i just got them and found out later they were a pair when i got eggs unexpectedly. I only had them as pets and the babies ended up becoming one of my more snake savvy friends pets. I am not into serious breeding just possibly having a few pets that I can raise from day one. I have always had at least one ball python around for as long as I can remember and have always loved the thought of breeding but I want to make sure I do it responsibly and learn as much as possible before actually letting two snakes breed intentionally. Thank you so much for being willing to share information. That is part of the reason I like this site so much. Everyone is normally so friendly and informative. If you have any other info or recommendations for me I would be glad to hear them.

Project is spot on in his posts.

If you or your sister are set on breeding, my recommendation would be to produce something you would like to have. Spend some time on world of ball pythons and see what strikes you. Pick the breeding snake based on what's needed to make that combo. Some people really like morphs that I find dull and vice versa so it's very personal decision based on your tastes.

Don't forget about the expenses that come with breeding... incubator, racks for the hatchlings, live food for several feedings. The recommendation used to be to pick two snakes to create a morph that's out of your price range. Prices have come down so much though that breeding would actually be a more expensive proposition than just outright buying the vast majority of available ball python morphs now.