Tips for Breeding Snakes?

[msgrim]

Hello fellow herp lovers!

I am msgrim, and I am new to the forum. I thought this would be a great community to openly discuss the topic of snakes with others who are also experienced owners. :)

I am going to start off this thread with a bang!

I have decided to finally breed ball pythons after years of owning reptiles. I decided to breed because I have several connections within the herp society, local pet stores, and fellow herp friends in my city that would like to buy the morphs I'm looking to breed.

I have two cinnamon females that have great pattern and color and are the correct size and age for breeding. I plan on breeding them with an amazingly colorful banana male, who is also the correct size and age for breeding.

If I do everything correctly, Ill end up with banana cinnamons! (That's the hope anyways)

I know that in order to initiate breeding, you must adjust the temperatures for several weeks before hand to cycle them. So let me ask, forum: How do you cycle your breeding snakes? For how long? What temperatures?

Any tips would be appreciated. Everyone needs to start somewhere, I just want to make sure to do it correctly.

[Aaron_S]

A lot of people don't cycle their ball pythons anymore. They simply pair them up from fall throughout winter/spring.

I personally believe in the old school of dropping temps as it's my personal ritual. I drop the night time temps by a mere 5 degrees from about November to August.

[Captain837]

We bred our ball for the first time this season and used the temp drop method. Witnessed locks with both females. So far it looks like one of the two females took. My best tips would be the following;
Don't rush them, make sure they are big enough and healthy.
Make sure they are the gender you think (or were told) they are.

[Albert Clark]

With ball pythons, it's a good strategy to pair males and females for short periods. Then, separate them especially if you are not witnessing any courting or locks between the animals. Cooling or dropping temps is a optional consideration and you will have to see what works for you through trial and error. Nutritional supplementation especially for the females will help in conditioning them for breeding. Pairings, separations and them reintroduction will help also. Good luck.

[msgrim]

I appreciate all the tips!

I did a lot of research and decided to try simply pairing the female with the male, giving the male a "week on week off" setup. I will see how it goes. So far, they seem pretty close!