Breeding Ball Pythons

[stevesemerko]

I am planning to breed my ball pythons soon but I have gotten a lot of contradicting information on how to do so. Can someone with experience breeding ball pythons please tell me the following:

1. What time of the year do ball pythons breed?
2. What do you have to do to condition them?
3. How do you go about pairing them up...do you introduce the female to the male or the other way around?
4. What is the best way to remove the mother from her eggs for incubation?

I think that is it. If you have any other tips or methods etc. They would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Steve

[tHeGiNo]

Well I am not going to give you any tips on breeding or anything of the sort, ill leave that to the pros on this site, however what I will say is nothing could be more efficient then going out and buying a movie or two on ball pythons and breeding them, an ever resourceful tool that you wont regret purchasing.

[BurmBaroness]

I am kind of new to this also, as I just bred mine for the first time. However, the end of march is when the spring season is over. I introduced the male to the female, as a long time reputable breeder has been giving me some help. He said it usually goes better, because after the female is gravid, you do NOT want to be moving her. So if you put the male in with her, that eliminates that problem. Also, he said that about half of his he cools down before breeding, and half he does not. gets the same results either way. I did not cool mine, and she is gravid. I have not had to worry about removing eggs yet, but She will not be happy, so I plan to just hook her out, put her in a plastic tote, and remove the egss to the incubator. Then I will proceed to clean the entire cage, as well as give her a good soak before replacing her in the cage. As long as she can smell the eggs, whether on herself or in the enclosure, she will not eat. Also, a word of advice. Buy your incubator early, set it up, and let it run for a week or 2, so you will know ahead of time that it will hold proper temps and humidity. Would really suck to have nice eggs, with a faulty incubator. Hope my little bit of info helps, and I'm sure someone more experienced will be along with more tips.
Good luck!

[Corey Woods]

Steve,

You cool ball pythons from October 1st to April 1st. At that time most will continue to feed during most of the breeding season and animals will be introduced for breeding during this time as well. Most females ovulate March-May so you want to have the females bred before she ovulates. Ovulation is the process of the ova being fertilized by the sperm.......so if the female isn't bred by the time she ovulates there is no sperm to fertilize the ova and therefore the eggs will all be no good.

All I do to condition balls to breed is shut off their heat at night from Oct 1 to April 1. They still have their hot spot of 90-92F during the day and no heat at night (ambiant room temp of 66-72F).

I place the male in the females cage only because I breed multiple females with one male. So, if find it easier to move the male from cage to cage. However, placing the female in the males cage works equally as well.

As far as removing a female from her eggs just go in and take her off.......most are so tired from laying eggs they don't have enough strength to put up a fight.

Corey
P.S. This breeding season is over so put some weight on your animals to get them ready for next year.

[killaclown]

I can only tell you 1 thing the darker the ball the bete breeding chances

[Corey Woods]

Killaclown,

The clour of the snake has nothing to do with how well (or well not) it will breed. I have not experienced any noticable colour changes in any of my gravid pythons.

Corey

[killaclown]

I have my darker WC bred beter then my lighter CBs sounds funy but its true.

[Markus Jayne]

Actually, I notice the opposite. My females lighten up when they are gravid. They seem to have this glow about them. Sometimes their heads get so light they look like ghosts. I can pretty well tell when a female is not going to go for me based on her color.

Just an observation.

MJ