Inside a Snake Breeder’s World: Creating Stunning Ball Python Morphs in Ohio

As a child, Stephanie Davis spent her time in the woods, catching anything that moved — especially snakes. Her mom designated a barrel behind their horse barn for Davis’ findings.

“She went out there the one day, and there’s like 50 of them in there,” Davis recalls.

Although her mom set them loose, it was the beginning of Davis’ lifelong passion. When she was 16, she bought her first captive-bred snake, a red-tailed boa. At 28, she went to a reptile show with someone she was dating at the time. The pair fell for a piebald ball python — a snake with a striking white-and-brownish pattern.

“We just fell in love. We wanted one, but at the time, they were two or $3,000,” she says. “We just started talking to people, and they’re like, Yeah, well, you can make this snake. It’s a recessive mutation. So, they said, You need to buy … a snake that carries this gene, a male and a female, and you can produce one.”

Since then, Davis has been breeding ball pythons, on and off, for about 16 years with her business, Daily Exotics. The New Franklin resident keeps some of the snakes she breeds and sells the others, putting most of the money she makes back into her business.

“You’re constantly upgrading your collection to the genetics that you want,” she says.

Now, Davis has several ball pythons, along with a few hognose snakes. She’s converted one room of her house into a space for her reptiles. The colder side of their enclosures, she notes, should be 75 to 80 degrees. The snakes also require 50 to 60 percent humidity.

“All my snakes, except for a few, are on snake racks that are ran with heat tape and hooked to a thermostat to stay at a certain temperature, because with ball pythons, usually you want an area about 90 degrees, where they can digest their food,” she explains.

Ball pythons are very laid-back, she says. It’s easy for her to read their body language.

“If you know your animals and you watch your animals, they’ll tell you what they need,” she says. “They’re all just a little bit different.”

Breeding snakes has taught her patience.

“It’s a half a year process,” she says. “Being a snake breeder, you always pray to the odd gods. Because some of these combinations that you’re trying for … it might be anywhere from a 50 percent chance to a one in 128 chance.”

Still, she describes getting a new color, scale structure or pattern — also known as a new morph — as “the best feeling in the world.”

“You’re creating living art,” she says. “There’s so many different possibilities. It’s endless to mix certain genetics with other genetics and create something entirely new.”

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