Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok i put a male het to my female alb on feb 2.she had just had a shed two weeks prior,and he put it to her good for a couple of months,at least 10 visual lockups.i could time the rain by the two of them.when he was done i pulled him out and fed them both.haveing trouble finding jumbo rabbits so she got two meds.she started her shed on 5-13,i thought it was her forever shed,but today she had shed and pood.and she is now back to her normal self.this was her first year but with the amount of humpin these two did i was shure she would go.where did i go wrong.they were both cooled and healthy.kinda new to breading burms,but it looks like she didn't take.you guys are the pros what do you think?

For some reason she just want ready to ovulate. There are a lot of factors that can induce a successful breeding: timing, cooling, photoperiod, overall health prior to breeding, fertility of the male, breeding history of the female etc... Some people get successful breedings and don't pay attention to any of the forementioned factors and some experienced breeders "do everything right" and still don't get some animals to breed. It's never easy to just say, "fix this and all will work better next year." Some females just dont get the trigger that they need. I had several females this year that bred like rabbits and for whatever reason, never ovulated. ...and they were kept under the same conditions that several other females did ovulate. Sometimes, I'm looking at several big females and left scratching my head and thinking, "You really should have gone this year...." Some of my most mature females did not ovulate this year, while some of my younger females that were just bumping 9'-10' bred successfully. Don't fret if your female didn't ovulate...it's just not always that simple.

All that being said...I don't have enough info to help you diagnose this particular situation. If you can provide dates of cooling, temps, hot spot temp, night drops etc... Many folks on this forum can help you further. Everyone has their own style and can find success through different methods. There is no one right method for breeding success.

Here's my recipe, and those that know me, know that I usually use the holidays as three of my big milestones:

Halloween - stop feeding

Thanksgiving - start cooling and reduce photoperiod. Gradually reduce temps over the next 3-4 weeks to 84 degree high, 78 degree night. hot spot 87 day - 84 night. At the same time, reducing down to 8 hours of light. When the females are ready, they'll stay away from the hot spot.

Christmas - introduce pairs

January is usually when most activity occurs. I start to bring up the temps and photo period around the middle / end of January. -begin feeding small meals.

February: breeding continues and ovulations occur.

March - April: eggs deposited.

May - June: eggs hatch...up to this point, the animals have been doing all the work. Now your work really begins!!

This is a great hobby...limit your numbers, do it for the love of the animals and you will never tire or burn out. Enjoy.

Keep your eyes on the half dwarf burms. Those animals are amazing and require their own discussion.

Tom