Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a pair of breeding size, breeding condition Brazilians that I would like to breed this year. I was planning on pairing them at the same time as my ball pythons. I am currently gradually lowering temps and will begin pairing in October. Does this sound okay for the boas, or does anyone have a "breeding calendar" of sorts that they use for breeding BRB's? I'd appreciate feedback from anyone with breeding experience. Thanks.

You may want to give out your location as that can make a difference. I have 13 BRB's, but am two years from breeding, so I am not in a good position to help you - but there are people on the forum that will offer advice.
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Mike

6.7 BRB
1.2 Spotted Python
1.0 Cal. King

Not sure why it matters, but I am in Houston.

I would think it has to do with natural lighting and when the days get shorter, and people in the north should be able to start to cool and get breeding a bit earlier.
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Mike

6.7 BRB
1.2 Spotted Python
1.0 Cal. King

BRB breeding 101, not to be used as gospel, only documenting how I did it.

My recipe for BRB breeding. Not sure what is working, this season (2005) from 2.7 adults I had 6 viable litters and one slug/still born. Total of 136 babies. This is what I did.

Cage:

I made this cage to be expandable. It has 8 roughly 2' x 2' x18" sections. There is 4" PVC that connects all the sections together, one vertical run on each side and a pass through between the top two and the bottom two cage sections. All these pipes have threaded ends and can be closed off as required.

Please note these are old pics. Not of the 2005 breeding season. The small boxes on the left were some babies on hold and there were even a pair of Ball Pythons housed on the right.

Typical setups are on the right side, top and third down, now all 8 sections are set up the same.

Normally all sections are blocked off and I house each individual in it's own section.

Substrate/water/hides:
I was using newspaper and just recently (mid breeding season) switched to indented craft paper. Each cage gets a sweater box for hide/moss. The box gets about an inch of peat moss well dampened and another inch of green moss also nice and damp. There is also a two gallon squat water bowl with about 1 to 2 inches of water I place on top of the hide.

Heating:
I heat the cage they bred in this year with 60 Watt light bulbs. I've heard this is not optimal and have heard stories about snakes getting burned but I've never had any problem. Still my new second cage has underneath heat with no light bulbs. My cage thermostat is set to 80 degrees and the whole room ends up this temp ( I know, no temp gradient but it is working ). Also the thermostat is on a timer and shuts off at night for nighttime cooling. The downstairs room they occupy was built as a guest bedroom and has full insulation so it does cool off but does not get cold.

Feeding/Cleaning.
I usually feed on a two week, give or take, schedule. I feed F/K as I raise my own feeders. Also sometimes feast/famine as I raise my own feeders. I usually check the cages daily and clean as necessary. More so during "eating" season. The hide boxes get checked/changed frequently as they like to poop in the moss maybe to wipe their butt?

Breeding cycle:
Around Thanksgiving I started dropping my daytime temps over a week or so from 80 to 75. Still keeping all snakes separate. (BTW, I am in San Jose CA, does not get real cold here so I have to use the middle of the winter as my cooling time) Kept this way still feeding cleaning etc. until Valentines day. On 02/14 I cranked the thermostat back up to 80 and arranged my breeding colonies. For this year, I opened up both of the vertical runs on the sides but kept the pass through blocked. In effect, had two four cage sections. On one Side I put my male M5 along with 4 females and the other got my male Porky along with the remaining 3 adult females. Within days I saw evidence of breeding but did not observe any actual copulation. Left it that way for some time during which all the snakes stopped eating. Not sure when, may have been April, after all breeding activity had stopped I closed off all the pipes, isolated all the females and prepared for the long wait.

Birthing:
As soon as I find/notice babies I remove them from the mothers cage. Their next care depends on the state of the litter. For example this year:

One litter was found all out cruising the cage none still attached to yolk or umbilical. I put these babies directly into shoe boxes.

Three litters were found in the hide, full term with minimal or no yolks. I let the babies work them selves free of the egg sacks and umbilical then place each baby in it's shoe box.

Note: one baby was a "preemie" with large yolk and was not coming out of sack. I transferred this baby sack and all to it's shoe box, kept it VERY damp and let it finish the yolk off over two days.

One litter was laid in the water bowl. I strained the water out and dumped the whole slime pile with babies into a sweater box and kept them in there for a day till I was ready to transfer them into shoe boxes.

In the past I have had litters with some yolk still, those are best to just leave alone and let the babies absorb as much yolk as they can.

Vacation:
Thought I'd mention that when I'm planning on being gone, I stop feeding two weeks prior to leaving and don't feed again until I return. This helps keep the mess to a minimum while I'm not there to clean it up.

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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
24.36 BRB
19.19 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Those cages seem really small with no room to stretch out or move or do anything...especially for one ball python, let alone two in one cage. And aren't BRB's bigger than ball pythons?
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~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

Brb's like to feel very secure therefore they hide a lot and they don't like big hides so cramming themselves or fitting snug any hide is 10 times better than having a hide to big. Brb's can be longer than ball pythons but balls are fat not p-h-a-t. So it's like comparing Fat Albert to say Richard Simmons and I'm sure Dave wasn't breeding the balls he was just holding them for someone and his squat bowl appear to only take up half the amount of floor space but yet this only my interpretation and experience
Bob

I would agree that these cages are at the extreme small end of cages. However, as Bob indicated, BRB's will spend most of their time in a properly furnished hide. They love to burrow into damp moss. The hides shown are just the perfect size for an adult BRB. That and the water bowl being on top give them a bit of a two story condo effect. Also, there are tubes on the sides of the cage stacks to interconnect cages which is done for a good part of the year. Only closed off for gestation and a few months after birth (feeding season). Once I start cooling for breeding the tubes are opened up and they can travel from cage to cage. They still settle into a moss box for days at a time. and when they do explore, they often end up in a different moss box for more days on end.

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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
24.36 BRB
19.19 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Oh, OK. I really like the layout and the construction, and the tubes are a really cool idea. It's a very clean looking setup. I just wasn't sure about the size, but you explained well.
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~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

Yeah, if they were more active all the time (not just breeding season) then they'd for certaoin need larger spaces. I really like the tubes, allows me to set up as little or as much space as needed for each breeding group.
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
24.36 BRB
19.19 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats