Well, you will probably get more in depth and different opinions in the responses following my own.. but I'll give you my two cents as someone who started from scratch with babies and finally got a successful litter this year ;p
As for breeding, many people do not feed while they are attempting to breed their snakes. In addition some people 'cool' them before introducing them, which generally means it's better to not feed them either until they are back to normal temps and they can properly digest their food (depending on what temps you use when cooling). I do not cool my snakes, but I've still had successful breeding and much attempted breeding this year. I feed them small meals during breeding sometimes, I only separate them when there is no activity for the meals and because I want them strong and healthy. After breeding, some feed females that accept meals while they are gravid, but you'll find some gals just won't eat at all by choice. I feed very small meals every couple weeks, up until about a month or so before I expect her to give birth. To feed later may cause premature births while passing waste, no bueno! ;p
I feed my adult gals (BCI, not BCC) a couple large rats every 2 weeks, or for the much larger gals, a 2-3lb bunny every 3-4 weeks or longer. This is all approximate for me, others have a more strict schedule. I try not to overfeed, but I do feed a little more before I expect to be breeding a female to put extra weight on her, lean weight, not fat weight ;p. Even if they want more than you've given them, don't let them talk you into it if you don't think they need it! ;p I feed my males a bit less than that and sometimes they refuse food during breeding, one track mind you see!
In my first successful breeding, I was lucky to get 20 babies from my female, her first litter too... so she did great. I had bought her as a 100% Het and bred her to my male albino. The lady never sent the paperwork for her, and I discovered much to my dismay, that I was ripped off when the litter yielded NO albinos. That is something else that you have to look forward to, make sure you get a Het. from a reliable source and try to get picture ID paperwork too (I sell all of my Hets with those, and keep a copy, so if they ever try to come back and say I ripped them off I can check the adult pattern to those in the baby pictures!)
I did not expect so many babies for her first litter and at first I had to house them 4 to a tub. I waited for the first shed to try a very, very tiny pink rat for each snake (fed separately). I started with rats because if you start on mice, sometimes it will be a pain later to switch them to rats! You feed the babies a meal that is about the size of the largest part of the midsection, and probably smaller when you are starting them off. I fed mine once a week, as they've grown I've sometimes waited for them to defecate before feeding. When they had each shed a few times and had a certain amount of meals, I traded half of them for rack-work from a friend, and then was able to separate the rest and catalog each with pictures to start advertising for selling. It takes awhile to sell them, especially since I am nobody yet. I had to lower prices to make my babies more 'attractive' and then I gave deals for anyone who bought more than one. I made sure each person got the birth cert. with my information AND pictures of the parents as they got their new babies. Sad to see them go. I kept 1.4 and they each have a separate tub so I have no trouble telling who went when, who is sick, who shed, who didn't eat, etc.
My kids born in May are eating rat fuzzies... but two gals are bigger than the rest and growing like monsters, they get the almost hopper size babies. The male I kept is the smallest of them all and eats the littlest rat fuzzies. I don't want to push them and since I can focus on 5 easier than 20 ;p It isn't a problem to wait for them to poo before another feeding.
Enough rambling from me, hope that helped a bit. Since I am fairly new and started from scratch, I thought it may be interesting for you to read about my experiences so far. Oh, I did adopt/rescue an 8ft female and when I bred her to my Anery male a half year later, all I got was heartbreak. The first litter was premature, I saved two... one died later. I was bawling. The one male that survived is big now and an changes colors. I waited a year to give her a break and tried again, same pairing, she threw slugs and very premature babies. Nobody survived from that litter. I thought It was all me until my litter last year (weird to say that now ;p back in 2007!)that came out perfect without any slugs, premies, or stills. I hope you have better luck with your first breedings!
So Good luck!
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Steph S.
Boas...
1.1 Albino boas (Loki & Hope)
1.4 07 Het. albino boas (Petty & Lady,Sierra,Madeline,Lola)
0.1 Reverse stripe poss. het albino (Cookie)
0.1 Salmon/hypo (Scarlet)
0.1 Anery poss. het snow (Missy)
1.0 Anery (Reno)
0.1 DH Sunglow (Bonnie)
1.0 Het. Anery (Guy)
0.3 Normals (Ophelia, Sasha, & Lulu)
1.1 Surinames (Solomon & Surreal)
1.2 Hogg Isles (Mr.Orange & Peaches, Apricot)
0.0.1 Central American (Sassy)
0.1 Emerald Tree boa (Jade)
1.0 ATB (Satan... seriously!)
Pythons...
2.1 GTPs (B., Monty & Jewel)
0.0.3 BPs (MJ, Precious, Houdini)
1.1 Carpet Pythons (Jackson & Charlotte)
0.1 Blood python (Akaia)
Misc.
1.1 Mandarin Ratsnakes (Jack & Jill)
1.0 Boxer/Pitt Mutt (Tyson)
