I used ultrasound last year which was my first year breeding. I think an ultrasound is the best investment ANY ball python breeder can make and I for one can't imagine not having ultrasound machine. In my first year breeding I ended up with 19 hatched clutches from 20 females bred. It is really unbelievable the information you can get. The ultrasound lets you know exactly when the female is ready for the male and when the follicles have developed sufficiently that the female no longer needs to be put with the male. It also lets you identify those females that are off feed but still aren't committing follicles so you don't waste your males on them.

This can significantly increase the number of females a male can succesfully cover. Ultrasound also allows you to know exactly how many follicles a female is committing in a given year and this way you can pass on a female that for whatever reason is only committing 3-4 follicles and wait for the following year when she will likely commit 6-10.

I think the ultrasound is will change some of the current conventional wisdom regarding ball python breeding out there. There is some more really exciting cutting edge stuff coming down the pike that is really going to rock the reptile breeding world in the next couple years.

Good luck

Grant

[ Show Entire Thread ]