Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted something about this in the 'breeding' section of the forum, but that section seems pretty deserted, so I thought it would be worthy of posting here.

As some of you probably already know, I have a small collection of pets (bearded dragon, mali uromastyx, leopard gecko, russian tortoise, and of course, my young ball python). In the future I would like to start breeding some reptiles. I've given it careful thought, and I would not like to involve my uromastyx because she is a rescue, she is old, she is in her retirement home I don't want to breed bearded dragons because there's too many of them already on the market, and though I would like to breed leopard geckos the same applies to them.

So I would like to focus on, once my Ball python and Russian tortoise are adults, breeding those two species. I figure that the clutch sizes for both species are relatively small, making it somewhat easy to keep any babies that don't get sold right away (I don't know how people deal with 100's of beardies running around), plus, they are two species I am really interested in (another species I'm interested in is uromastyx, but I'd rather wait and see how the tortoises and ball pythons go before investing in something like that).

So basically I'm looking for any info that can be given on all aspects of breeding reptiles (specifically ball pythons right now). I want to know everything, like how to induce breeding, how to sex my BP I have now (as well as hatchlings)....everything down to where/how to sell the offspring and how to ship them.

I think I would start by getting a normal mate for the normal BP I have now, but then after a season or two of successful breeding (if that happens), I would probably want to invest in an albino, as I really like those and, mainly, would like to keep one as a pet anyways (but can't justify spending that kind of money on a strictly pet animal). The intentions would be to produce normals, hets, and eventually also full albinos every season. I don't really want to turn reptiles into business, but mostly I want to get into an aspect I've never yet encountered.

The tortoises are another story, but that would also partly be my father's project (as he is the tortoise fanatic).

Thanks in advance for any websites or helpful hints/tips that you can give me.

I think the best thing to do would be to invest in Dr. Seward and TSKs Ball Python Breeding DVD - it will answer most of your questions and give you visuals. I think the only thing that was not in the DVD that would have been nice would have been to include - how to incubate eggs for those that cannot afford the fully insulated, walk in incubator with paging alarm system . LOL - but thats why we have so many helpful people on the forum. Marcus Jayne has an awesome site for breeding with pictorial. There are other DVDs, books, breeding sheets - I haven't read all of them, alot - but it's not really rocket science - it's just patience.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

6.42.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 Lizard of unknown origin