Wow dude this is one awesome season for being your first..........Any tips would be greatly appreciated.........
And another one...(clutch #3)
- Thread starter elevatethis
- Start date
Thanks everyone...well, as far as tips, I'll be brutally honest. I think the heart of it lies with the setup. Here's my recipe:
This is for the breeding girls. All juvies and males are kept with the same routine year-round.
Summer months (May-September): Feed the crap out of the girls. 1-2 weaned rats every 7 days. Feeding smaller prey keeps their system steady and keeps them hungry - they get more calories eating 1-2 weaned rats every 7 days than if they were to eat 1 medium or large every 2 weeks. Ball pythons do better on smaller prey (not to mention some of them are shy and are just intimidated by larger rodents). Temps are 92-94 on the warm spot and 82-84 everywhere else.
Oct 1: At night, the warm spot goes down to 82, the rest of the tub can drop to 80. I do this from 9pm to 9am. Daytime temps are the same as above. Feed the females every other week, no doubles, smaller prey too.
November 1: Pairing begins. Just put whatever male you want with whatever female and leave them alone for 24 hours. Males are whores and breed without much outside influence (usually). Pairing and night time cooling continues until the end of February.
March 1: As far as the snakes are concerned, its summer again. Night-time cooling stops and its back to daytime. Females are off of food by now. You want them to be "empty" so there's room for follicles to grow, and this is why it is so important that females have adequate size on them before you think about breeding them. They will use about 1/3-1/2 of their body weight to produce eggs. Pairing stops at this time.
From March until now its all about watching the females, checking for ovulations, and waiting for eggs!
Breeding ball pythons is really all about having precise control of your temperatures. I've probably got $1000 worth of thermostats in my snake room - Helix, Herpstats, Ranco - best investment you can make if you are serious about breeding ball pythons.
This is for the breeding girls. All juvies and males are kept with the same routine year-round.
Summer months (May-September): Feed the crap out of the girls. 1-2 weaned rats every 7 days. Feeding smaller prey keeps their system steady and keeps them hungry - they get more calories eating 1-2 weaned rats every 7 days than if they were to eat 1 medium or large every 2 weeks. Ball pythons do better on smaller prey (not to mention some of them are shy and are just intimidated by larger rodents). Temps are 92-94 on the warm spot and 82-84 everywhere else.
Oct 1: At night, the warm spot goes down to 82, the rest of the tub can drop to 80. I do this from 9pm to 9am. Daytime temps are the same as above. Feed the females every other week, no doubles, smaller prey too.
November 1: Pairing begins. Just put whatever male you want with whatever female and leave them alone for 24 hours. Males are whores and breed without much outside influence (usually). Pairing and night time cooling continues until the end of February.
March 1: As far as the snakes are concerned, its summer again. Night-time cooling stops and its back to daytime. Females are off of food by now. You want them to be "empty" so there's room for follicles to grow, and this is why it is so important that females have adequate size on them before you think about breeding them. They will use about 1/3-1/2 of their body weight to produce eggs. Pairing stops at this time.
From March until now its all about watching the females, checking for ovulations, and waiting for eggs!
Breeding ball pythons is really all about having precise control of your temperatures. I've probably got $1000 worth of thermostats in my snake room - Helix, Herpstats, Ranco - best investment you can make if you are serious about breeding ball pythons.
Nice tips, thanks for sharing (not everyone likes to). I agree about thermostats... i don't see why people dont have them! Nice to see you are more in tune of their natural breeding cycle. It seems now-a-days, you'll have clutches from april to october!
Great job elevatethis! It's a wonderful feeling when your animals breed. You know your doing something right for them to be that comfortable! Good luck, and I hope to see some pics when they hatch.
A quality thermostat will last for years. When I started out, I frowned at spending anywhere from $70-150 for a thermostat and bought the cheap ones - zoo-med, alife, etc - all of them broke or malfunctioned in the first year and never really worked that effectively to begin with. I just figure that for the life of an animal that can live 20-30 years, spending the money on a thermostat that will last and function effectively that is more than worth it. Its pennies a day when you think about it over the long term.
I agree that money should not be an issue in doing a set up. However I don't blame people for looking ways of being cost-efficent. If they really want to do that, they need to look into other money-saving costs such as decors, feeders and insulation instead of the equipment.
I wish I can get into breeding some days... I am sure I have had a few anole clutches, but I never bothered looking for them since I am not interested in having more in my collection, nor can I make any money off of them. Maybe my Ackies will be the way to breeding paradise -- just need to get them to be sexually matured.
I wish I can get into breeding some days... I am sure I have had a few anole clutches, but I never bothered looking for them since I am not interested in having more in my collection, nor can I make any money off of them. Maybe my Ackies will be the way to breeding paradise -- just need to get them to be sexually matured.
TheBloodyIrish;922337; said:
Just to premise everything I said, in no way am I saying that is the ONLY way to do this. I am just sharing what has worked for me personally and others have done much more with far less, let me tell you! Ball pythons are very hardy animals that thrive under a variety of conditions, but to get them to breed reliably, precise control of their environment is required.
I don't think its a coincidence that I subjected all of the females to the same conditions and they all have gone through their reproductive cycles within weeks of one another. Some people don't really do anything but pair up their snakes occasionally and they happen to get clutches spread out over the whole year. For me, I'd rather have specific seasons for specific things, and thats really just a personal choice.
If you ask 100 different breeders, you'll get 100 different answers. Everyone finds out what works for them and thats what makes this such a great hobby to have.
