ok, so how does this thing werk...???

[raebug2000]

ok, i hasve my male who is settled in and eating. i have 2 girls .....why doesnt he want to nookie with them? do i have to play barry white or something? do i dress the snakes in sexy lingerie? do i offer snake porn?
how do i get them in the mood?

(p.s.) every snake is a consenting adult)

[munchy]

have they reached sexual maturity yet? have you cooled them? positive of the sex of all 3?

[raebug2000]

sexually mature yes.....
positive on all 3? yes...probed by a herp vet
cooled them....how cool do they have to be?

[mykee]

It's not a 'sure thing' that you'll get copulation when putting BP's together. How big are your snakes? What are their daytime temps? What are their nightime temps? What size enclosure do you have them in to breed? How old are they? There are a lot of factors that go into upping your chances of a sucessful coupling.

[raebug2000]

male is 4 feet at 3.5 pounds before a full tummy....
female 1 is 3.0 lbs
female 2 2.8 lbs

everyone is over 3 years old
daytime around upper 70's
night time 65ish
the container is 18 inches wide and about 25 inches deep....

[Jeff_Favelle]

LOL, you DON'T cool Ball Pythons to breed them. You drop the temp at night, and the day time highs stay the same. No wonder your poor snakes aren't breeding. You're freezing the damn things.

[mykee]

Wow, your daytimes are WAY too low, they should be 90-95. That should never change, breeding or not. Your nighttime is also WAY too low. They should get as cool as the low 70's. You're quite lucky their still alive. Also, it seems that the enclosures that you have them in (18x25) will not give the females enough space to thermoregulate. Lastly, you threw the pound thing in on me, so I'll have to break out the calculator for this one. Female #1 is1360g. For a three year old, I'm guessing she's not carrying enough fat at that size to give you good clutches. Female #2, same story. Your male sounds good though. I may be wrong, please correct me if I am, but 1280g and 1360g respectively for three year old females is quite underweight and will probably give poor clutches.

[Jeff_Favelle]

I may be wrong, please correct me if I am, but 1280g and 1360g respectively for three year old females is quite underweight and will probably give poor clutches.

The only thing you COULD be wrong about is that they probably won't give any clutches at all!!

[snakehunter]

ive read that putting the mates in a pillow case, and driving them around in you car for about ten minutes usually works for some reason, BUT your snakes are too small, i would wait another year or so.

[Corey Woods]

I've gotten balls down to 63F at night......I don't really recommend it but it's do-able if you pump them up to 95F during the day. I recommend 92F during the day (I used 7am-5pm during the winter) and then shut off the heat at night so they drop down to in around 68-73F at night.

Also, in my experience most balls don't want to breed until Jan-March. A bigger male is generally a better breeder and I've never had a CB male not breed.

Also, your females are a little small........it's mostly upto the female on whether or not they breed......with them being a little small they probably aren't ready to breed. If they don't breed my March warm them up and hopefully you'll have better luck next year.

Corey
PS Keep feeding them once a week while you are cooling them.

[BoidKeeper]

PS Keep feeding them once a week while you are cooling them.
If they'll eat, grrrrr! My females started refusing food in September. I've had two take a few meals since but nothing weekly. Any thoughts as to why they might have stoped so soon or stoped at all? Last year it was my males that stoped. My females never stoped at all. It's like they know I want to breed them this year so they are on a hunger strick in protest or something.
Trevor

[mykee]

Trevor, that's funny you should say that, because in the last 12 days, all but two (maybe three) of my balls have gone off food. Frustrating as hell. Must be something in the air.....

[Corey Woods]

Trevor,

My females are famous for doing that..........they get to just in around breeder size and then go off food. Keep offering food and hope for the best....

Corey
PS Try them on live.

[BoidKeeper]

Thanks Corey. What I have done is placed them alone in dark rubbermaid over night with a F/T and that has worked. I'd hate to go all year feeding F/T and then have an accident happen now. I think I'll try F/K and see how that goes.
Cheers,
Trevor