Reptile & Amphibian Forums

All my females have locked up 2 to 3 times with males for a month strait now. Now what? LOL
I lowered the hot spot to 87 from 90 and they started breeding like crazy. Should I do something else to encouarge them to develop eggs? Lower temp,raise temp,stop feeding,feed more?
Now what?

feed them
water them
keep breeding them
wait maybe 9 more months for eggs?

...all you can do
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The 9 month wait is what was throwing me off.
These are the questions I should have asked.

1.Whats the average time between locking up with a male and laying eggs?
2.How much does temp changes effect the development of follicles after a female has been with a male?

Thanks

temp change will make them breed ,ovulate,lay ,etc
light cycles will make them breed,ovulate,lay etc

light might be as /if not more,important than the temps......
as winter is just coming and the light cycle is just turning...it's just the beginning of breeding season....the cold is just getting here to Pa this week actually...

....as for time.......I bred 38 females? last year and the year before...(little less all the other years for like 15 years )....the average ovulations are in April and June...so eggs come from June till August....late August....

and they all may start breeding in October.......

.....all we can do....feed clean and wait.....

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Breed - separate - rest and feed.

Rinse and repeat.

Until you see ovulation (or eggs)

Nature will take the course nature takes - you're just along for the ride.
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Tosha
JET Pythons

Questions I meant to ask.
1.Whats the average time between locking up with a male and laying eggs?
2.How much does temp changes effect the development of follicles after a female has been with a male?
Questions I meant to ask.

There is no set standard for what you want to know.

The female is always developing follicles -- once they reach a certain size and if she has been with a male she will dedicate some of those follicles to maturation and fertilization -- if she hasn't been with a male she'll absorb them. Your job is to make sure that she is introduced to a male early enough so that she doesn't absorb her follicles and insure that when the follicles get to the right size - she has fresh sperm stored up to fertilize the eggs.

If your female's natural cycle puts her ovulation next spring it's not necessarily going to speed up just because you started breeding her earlier.
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Tosha
JET Pythons

"The female is always developing follicles"
Does this mean that I can put snakes together all year instead of waiting for "Breeding season"?

Many breeders in the warmer states like Florida sucessfully breed all year. Others keep to the "schedule" and try to simulate the seasons by lowering temps, cutting back on lights, putting snakes together when a front comes through, etc.

Sometimes it takes several locks and many months to produce eggs and even then some females don't lay for a variety of reasons. I'm sure most breeders have war stories of multiple locks and no eggs . . . I know I do.

Keep putting them together and watch for the signs. Good luck.
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Alice Cobb
Florida Reptile Room

There is no set time period between copulation and ovulation. In alot of cases copulation doesn`t even get you eggs. You are starting much earlier than i do, but for me the temp change helps induce breeding and doesn`t induce ovulation. I breed all my balls with the same temp changes and they lay over a four month period normally. My advice is keep hooking them up until they don`t want to or until ovulation.

>>There is no set time period between copulation and ovulation. In alot of cases copulation doesn`t even get you eggs.

Successful breeding is about much more than pairing up and getting eggs.

Assuming you have a viable male, with breeding tendencies and viable sperm...

The female will be resistant to copulation until she is in the window of productivity.

We had females copulate from December to June last season. Each female is going to enter her "window" at a different point. 80% will see that window (for us) from January to March, and that is still a big window.

When the female's follicles are too small, she won't want to be bothered, and it won't be productive anyway. Once her follicles pass about 8mm, you are starting to enter the viability window.

10-15mm is prime time, she is receptive, ready to go, hot and heavy for a male. If you don't offer a male during this time, she may shrink back up (invisible to your eye) and you have missed your shot.

If you continually pair her up and stress her out while she is still underdeveloped, you may blow your shot as well.

We use an ultrasound to spot each female for prime time, and pair her up only when she is ready. In that case, breeding often takes just a day. Then the male is on to other work, other females.

A primed female will get paired (with cops) 4-6 times on average.

A female may take 2 months or more to go from 4-6mm to 12mm, there is lots of time in there to goof it up, stress her out, annoy her, and ruin your shot.

Breeders that don't use ultrasounds usually palpate the females for follicles. RDR does this. It is not nearly as precise, but you can certainly feel when the follicles have matured to viability. Palpating is a learned technique, it can be very subtle.

In the Ball Python breeding video by Doc Seward and The Snake Keeper, they show you their cycling, and palpating. That DVD can be a big step in starting to understand what you are doing.

When you pair up balls for 6 months straight, 99.9% of that time is wasted and not productive, or even counter productive. Without understanding the fundamental basics of the cycling of the female, you really limit chances of success.

Pairing up females in October, and worrying about success or cops before November even hits, is REALLY a waste of time. It simply doesn't work like that.

Learn to palpate (get the DVD) and pair up only when your female is viable.

Or even better (and yet another reason to develop a friendly working relationship with a vet) take your female to a vet once a month and ultrasound for follicular development, then you can REALLY learn about cycling, timing, patience, and what is going on inside the female.

Your specific female may not be ready to breed until late April. It is VERY likely your female won't be ready until the first of the year. In that case, worrrying about it in October is silly.

Best of luck with your balls.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

nice of you to write such a long and informative post!

Pitoon

My post really turned into a general info post, and to add a couple other points...

Even experienced keepers can confuse hard courting with an actual lock up, actual copulation. Be careful interpreting what you see : )

It is not impossible to have a female cop outside her window, it is just much less likely. The only good lockups are when she is viable.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Now you wait and wait and wait and freak out and pow...eggs. Haha.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)