Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello all
this is my first year breeding and i have a couple questions..
i have read alot of the breeders pages on breeding but still have questions.
first one is i read alot about some of you that are putting the males with the females, are you doing this while cooling down? while doing this do you still feed?
also i have been going off of the http://www.ballpython.ca/gallery/breeding.html web site and i started colling the first of this month, so im getting ready to start introducing the males with the girls. during the introduction and 3 on 3 off would i feed during the off time??
any help is greatly appreicated

my understanding about cooling down is the male doesn't really have fertile sperm until the end of the cooling down period, however i'm no expert and it's my first season too, i just remember having read that somewhere - on this forum, i think.
During the off time offer food but don't expect your female to eat and if your male still believes he should be getting it on he probably won't eat either, mine was eating like a pig but after taking one rat this breaktime he's back to refusing food.
since i only have one pair i'm putting my male in with my female one week out of every month that she'll have him, just to be on the safe side

anyone with more experience is more than welcome to correct me and add more!

~jenny
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1.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
0.0.1 california kingsnake (tetris)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
2.0 horses (Buddy and Sam)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
1.25 chickens (Ugly the rooster and his harem)

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire

The male and female both need to be cooled before introduction. The cooling period signals the female to start producing folicles and the male to produce sperm. I introduce the male to the female about 1 month into the cooling period. I start cooling Nov 1st and introduce Dec. 1st. I'm sure everyone has thier own plan and several different methods will work. The male needs to be introduced before you start bringing the temps back up or the female could reabsorb her folicles.I'm not a "SEASONED" breeder, but it is my second season, and I have done ALOT of research. Most snakes will not continue to eat after the cooling period has started. The males will usually fast from the time they are introduced to the female until long after they have been seperated. I dont even offer food once I have started cooling to help them recognize that winter has started. Good Luck.

This is my breeding story....long but read on. Ok here it goes...see if this happened to anyone before. I bought a trio of adult het albino in November last year, it was in the low 30s with snow on the ground. They were shipped and in the mail 2 days (I was not happy) And to top it off the address was written so bad they delivered them to another home.....a vacant home at that. At 6pm I contacted the delivery company and they told the package had been left at my front door at 10am???? I went crazy and searched the neighborhood for them. I found them at 7pm and the box sitting in 3in of snow.......ran home and un boxed them and my worse nightmare all three looked dead. Two females one male, The tongs were out and animals were limp no movement at all. I emailed the guy I bought them from and informed him (no heat packs or nothing and crappy box to boot.) I was 100% sure two were dead and I sat them to the side, I put the other female in a container set at 90'....30 min later she appeared to have moved some and also the two tat were left on the shelve also had movement. I quickly put them in the same container and left the room with my fingers crossed. The next morning they were wondering the container like nothing ever happened.
I was shocked at their recovery and just 2 days later I decided to add them to the breeding season that was under way.
The male copulated with one of the females in less then 1hr and continued to do so with both females for about 1 month then all stopped. Ok heres the conclusion, the females dropped two clutches 3 and 5 and all fertile and full term. I produced some nice albino's from these litters.
Just thought I would pass this story along and to also let people know these animals are hardy and can handle very low temps....no I do not recommend freezing them to induce breeding but a long cool down may not be necessary for successful breedings.....But then again I am not sure what temps they were kept at before he shipped these ice sickles to me.
Thanks for reading this long post.
Pat... Riverside Reptile breeders

some people do not drop temps at all and do fine. I believe that Joe Compel and David Thompson both use this method but don't qoute me on it.
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"It's insane this guys taint"