Q:  Upon checking several breeders sites I see
that what you describe is true. There actually seems
to be very little, or no difference, between homozygous
male and female prices. The radical differences occur
between hets. I'm sure there is a good reason for the
price difference but I am hard pressed to explain to
myself why I should spend four times more for a female
het when I can get a male het for comparatively little.
I see that female hets are worth more in the marketplace
but can you explain why?

A:  Since the albino gene is simple recessive in ball pythons, that means you need at least one male het. and one female het. to produce albinos. A het. male bred to normal females doesn't give you much chance of producing albinos anytime soon -- not until at least the next generation is breeding age and can be bred back to their father -- not the best way to do things (because of the possibility of inbreeding problems).

You can get by with just one good het. male breeder, but you must have het. or albino females to breed him with if you're going to produce albinos. Of course, you can breed one male to several females. Since each female produces only one clutch of eggs a year, increasing the number of females is the best way for a breeder to increase his/her baby production. Females are more in demand because the ideal breeding colony has many females, and there aren't enough female hets. to fill the demand. Breeders don't need as many het. males, so the demand is not as high for them.

It's simple ecomonics. If a ball python morph/gender combination is in demand, but the supply is low, the price will remain high.

You wouldn't have seen it advertised, but some albino males have been sold for $10,000 instead of the normal $7500 that they were selling for at the time. The demand was so high, and the supply was low enough, that people were willing to pay much more than the normal price for an albino male -- even years after the morph had been introduced to the market. (This is what I've been told by reliable sources. I did not personally sell any albino males for $10,000!)

You can breed an albino male to many normal females and you'll produce valuable babies (all hets.). If you have an albino male that's a good breeder, you can produce more valuable animals in a given year than if you had one equally fertile albino female instead. So most breeders would rather have an albino male instead of an albino female if they could have only one or the other.

See what I mean?

Q:  I have a 8-9 month old ball python, I've only had
this snake for 3 months now and am lucky she's
still alive. She (Aggie) is a very sick snake.
She has had a terrible respiratory infection for
at least a month now. I took her to the vet
recently and now she is on medication so hopefully
that will help.

I think if I could get the temp. up in her tank
she would be a little better off but I've tried
everything. I have an under-tank heat-pad and a
heat lamp, I've covered the sides with
cardboard and also have a solid cover on the
top but still the tank is only 75-80 during the
day and even cooler at night. It's a 40 gallon tank
(a little big for her size I know but she doesn't
seem to mind) lined with newspaper. Do you know
of anything else I can do to help my poor little
snake? She has trouble breathing and is cold
but I don't know what else I can do.

A:  There are a number of things you can do to raise the cage temperature, but first of all you need a good way to measure it. Do you have a digital thermometer with a remote probe (on the end of a wire)? The stick-on temp. strips they make for aquariums aren't good for your application.

A big problem is that while your snake is still very small, it's in a very large cage. You indicated that you recognized that fact and stated that the snake didn't seem to mind. This illness is a pretty good indication that your snake does mind. It likely does not feel safe because it's in too big a cage. That kind of stress predisposes a ball python to illness (makes it more susceptible to getting sick).

If it were me, I'd probably get an appropriate size plastic box, drill a bunch of small air holes, set it up with water bowl and hide box, put the snake in it, and put the whole thing into your present 40 gallon on top of the heat pad. It would be like an incubator. This will give the snake a small, secure, easily heatable place to live until it recovers.

Tape the temperature probe from the digital thermometer to the floor of the plastic box at the hottest spot so you know exactly what the highest temperature is in there. Don't worry about a thermal gradient. Use either a thermostat or a "dimmer switch" to control the heat pad and get the floor of the plastic cage to about 86°-88°F, but not over 90°, and hold it there at least until you see major improvement in the snake's health. If you control the heat pad properly, you shouldn't need a heat lamp at all. I've kept boas and pythons in rooms that got down to 55°F at night in the wintertime with just a well-controlled heat pad.

Be very careful you don't overdo the heat. You can easily can kill a snake with too much heat. You MUST have an accurate themometer. Also be careful about fire safety. Make sure your equipment is in good condition.

Proper temperatures and the better security of a smaller cage will go a long way towards helping your snake recover.

Q:  Where do albino ball pythons come from?

A:  Most abnormal snake morphs originated in nature and were subsequently brought into captivity. Then they were selectively bred to reproduce the desired mutation over and over again. NOTE: All we are doing here is copying a mutated gene. Although it could theoretically happen, we generally are not creating new mutations when we breed our animals.

However, selective breeding in captivity has produced some new morphs that have never been found in the wild. This is done by combining genes that had never been combined before. Sometimes it's done on purpose, and sometimes it's a surprise when unusual babies are born because the breeder may not have known that the parents were carrying hidden, mutant genes.

What we are doing is reproducing (copying) unusual genes through breeding. We can't actually create the genes we desire.

Q:  What's the cheapest way to start breeding albino ball pythons?

A:  Breeding a heterozygous albino male to possible heterozygous females is a viable way to work towards producing albino balls. It's probably also the least expensive way. Just make sure that you've got several 50% or 66% possible heterozygous females to maximize your chances of having at least one het. in the group. You can buy several possible hets. for less than what one het. female costs, and you may even get lucky and get more than one heterozygous female out of the deal! (They must be proven through breeding before you will know for sure.)

Since one male can service numerous females, ideally you'd like to have many het. females and produce lots of eggs. You need het. females because breeding a het. male to normal females will not produce any albinos. (It only produces 50% possible hets.)

Q:  I have a ball python. He is about 3 feet long and
quite active but as of about the past couple of
weeks actually closer to three now I haven't been
able to get him to eat any thing (frozen or live)...
Someone had suggested moving him to a smaller container
to feed him but I'm not so sure considering the source...
I would greatly appreciate any tips on the conditions
and steps necessary to provide an ideal feeding environment...
He normally eats once every 7-10 days. I can't tell if
there is something wrong or not ....

A:  More than likely, what you're seeing with your ball python is completely normal.

You said you've feeding your ball python about every 7-10 days. As long as the meals have been at least the size of a large adult mouse or a small rat, I would think that your snake should have pretty good body weight. If that's the case, you have nothing to worry about. But if the snake is excessively thin or doesn't have the proper habitat, then that would be a different story.

It's not unusual for ball pythons to occasionally take a break from eating. Do not change the cage if the current cage already provides all the necessities because moving a ball python to a new cage can be stressful to the snake. Just offer your snake it's normal food (frozen/thawed, if at all possible) no more than once every two weeks, and your snake will begin eating again when it's ready.

It's part of the snake's natural life cycle to not eat sometimes. Just enjoy the break in routine, and continue to provide continuous fresh water. Your snake should be fine.