Depending on your definition of "fat"...

It WILL be detrimental to your breeding operation if your female is obese

I have also heard that it is best if MALES are kept "skinny" - again, this depends on your definition.

Excess fat buildup can hinder sperm production - but if your male is too skinny, he also doesn't have any energy reserves to support his breeding efforts

For females, again excess fat can hinder reproductive efficiency in several ways - basically, she won't be as efficient if she is obese, and obesity causes numerous other problems.

All that being said, females have the greatest reproductive requirements for expenditure of energy to support ovulation, and to support the growing embryos as well as their egg membranes and shells... so if you breed a female that is exactly at "ideal" weight, she may not have enough energy reserves to support her reproductive effort. A little bit of fat wouldn't hurt to support her efforts there - and provides a better chance that she will not be so terribly thin after she lays her eggs. THIS IS NO EXCUSE TO OVERFEED A FEMALE INTO OBESITY!

I would say that generally, at the start of breeding "season," you want your female to have just a little more fat to live off of than your male - but that both should be a little heavier than "ideal" weight, as both will be off of their feed during breeding, and both will expend more than their usual amounts of energy.

I say all of this from my understanding of reproductive physiology, and my understanding of Ball Python breeding and energy expenditure. I am in college majoring in Animal Sciences, and I have grown up around snakes. I have bred snakes before, but I have never myself bred Ball Pythons before. If anyone wants to pick apart what I have said, I leave that open to the true experts in this field.

Cheers!
~Rebecca
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0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)
1.2 Ball Pythons

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