Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My wife has been trying unsuccessfully to get her BPs to breed for a few years in her classroom, they were 3 years old when we got them. We figured the room was too warm so this year we kept them at home and started to cool them at the middle of october. We introduced the male to the female mid december, and within a week they were locked up almost every time I checked on them. Then a few weeks went by and I didnt see them locked up anymore. Now again for the past few weeks they have been locking up regurally. At this point I really feel they have had to had a successful mateing, and am wondering what we do next? I have read to keep them together until feb and start warming them back up to normal temp after that. We have them in a CB110 rack and want to know what a suitable nestbox would be? I planned on using another tub inside with vermiculite or somthing that would hold moisture until she lays. My questions are, how long til she lays eggs, where do we put the nest box hot or cold side? Do we need to feed her after she warms up? The first year we had her ,got her in december, she had been put through a cooling cycle and did not eat for about 4 months, I kind of expect her to not want to eat.
Thx in advance, we really want the kids to see these puppies hatch in school!
Chris and Tracy

Spagnum moss works wonders for keeping the humidity up.

Are you going to let her incubate the eggs or are you going to put them in an incubator?

There is a lot of information out there on ball python breeding. Check Ralph Davis's youtube site - tons of stuff there.

Here is a good pictorial on what to expect from the girl in the egg laying cycle.

www.ballpython.ca/gallery/breeding.html

We have an incubator, we just dont know what to expect since this will be our first. Thanks for the help.

Chris

You want to put the nesting box on the cool side because if she lays on the hot side she could cook the eggs. Also keep an eye of for ovulation, and when she lays eggs be very cafeful when you go to remove them, momma likes to protect the eggs.

When she shows signs of being gravid you may want to remove the male to help keep her stress down and keep handling to a minimum.

Best of Luck and you will have to show picts of the kids when they see the eggs for the first time and when they hatch. What grade is the class?

matt

My wife is teaching 6th thru 8th grade, next year she will be teaching 3rd grade, and we will do this again but with corn snakes next year. We bred the corns last year, but the kids didnt find the eggs until it was too late. My wife was on maternity leave and the sub wouldnt let the kids open the cages lol.
I can promise lots of pics, it will probably even be in the newspaper!

Thanks for the tips!
Chris and Tracy

What now? - Keep doing exactly what you are doing. When the female becomes gravid she won't allow the male to hook up with her any more.

Since I transfer all of my clutches to incubators I really never worried about placing a nest box in my tubs. Normally my snakes are on a mixture of fir and aspen bark chips, when I am positive that one of my females is gravid I will switch this out with shredded aspen. It is softer, and easier for the female to manipulate into her own "nest".

99% of the time the female will push as much of the substrate out of the way and will lay on the bare tub floor. I always get a little paranoid that the eggs will stick to the floor if I don't find them fast enough. I get around this by using some plastic craft sheeting that I found in the crafts section at Walmart. I'm not sure what it is called, but it is essentially a plastic grid that is used to weave yarn through it. I simply place one of these grids beneath the substrate on the warm side of the tub and when the female moves the substrate to make her nest she will end up laying her eggs on this grid (since she can't push it out of the way). When I find the eggs it is a simple task to lift the grid out and place it into my egg boxes in the incubator.

I know you want the kids to get the chance to see the eggs hatch but realize there is a chance that they won't hatch until summer break. At the very least next year's students should get a chance to interact with the hatchlings.

Ya we know the timing is off, but this is a very small town, and the kids will get to see them hatch, they wouldnt miss it for the world.

That grid stuff is called needle point I believe, I thought about wax paper too, but didnt know how to keep it in place.

Thanks for the info,
Chris and Tracy

And let me add that it would be cool for the kids to see this happen , BUT until you know for shore what you are doing I would keep them in a more secure and less active environment . And once you learn what to look for and know the warning sings as to what is or should be but is not , happening .than you can try it in a classroom setting , you don’t won’t it to all go bad in front of kids . Such as the female not feeling secure and holding her eggs and them go bad and end up septic and her die ,or a hole list of other things that could happen . It is not my intention to make you feel bad , just to think of what could happen when you are not shore of what you are doing . So I say., wait till you have 1 or 2 successful breeding sessions under your belt , it will be worth it in the long run .thanks David

We have them at home this year just for that reason. I try to peek in on them daily. Our intentions are to get the eggs into an incubator asap, and get most of the hatching time out of the way, and then transfer them to the school when they are pipping. Of course there will be some snag, and we fully expect failure, so anything more than that would be success for us. Thanks for your input.
Chris and Tracy