Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm curious to know what my chances are of catching the breeding season for this year. I have a male pied that is 328 grams and about a year old….I know he's a little on the small side, but I only feed my guys once every two weeks instead of the "normal" once a week like most people. I have two females that are a little over 1200 grams but no idea of their age since I got them in a trade. This will be my first time breeding balls as opposed to my boas and I've read that males should be at least 500 grams. I'm curious what you all think about putting him with the two females in a few months, do you think he's too young or small? Any info is appreciated, thanks in advance.

Darren.
-----
If you don't stand behind our troops, please, feel free to stand in front of them!

www.rezendesreptiles.com

Darren,

It isn't the male that I would be most concerned about, although he is very small for his age. The more important issue is the size of the females. The industry standard is for the female to be somewhere around 1500 grams. You will hear stories about some breeders getting a clutch of eggs out of 1200 gram females. but it is not advisable. When breeding females under 1500 grams, you risk them becomming egg bound and possibly dying. With that being said, it is also in my opinion, important that the male be carrying a little extra weight before the breeding season. It is not uncommon for male ball pythons to go off food during the breeding season. Sometimes it is very difficult to get them eating after the season. A lttle extra weight at the beginning of the season can help get them through it. Ive had a few males that died at the end of the season because they just would not eat.

If you plan on breeding these females I would begin feeding them very heavy right about now. I too am a boa breeder, but am always perplexed when I hear someone talking about slow growing their snakes.

It's important to remember that animals in general put on extra weight just before they become gravid / pregnant. Give your female ball pythons an extra 400 grams before putting them with your pied, you will not be sorry.

If by chance your pied is sexually mature and is able to succesfully breed, then at least you have given the females a chance to drop a healthy clutch.

If you have anymore questions I can be reached through my web site or by calling my cell at 408.981.6694

Best of luck to you.
-----
Brian Gundy

www.for-goodness-snakes.com

Hey Brian, thanks for the info and advice. If I have to wait until next year to put them together, that's ok with me. It's not really "a must" that they lock up this year, like I said I'm new at all this and i'm trying to gather as much info as I can before I screw something up. I do plan on bumping up my feeding to once a week for the ones that are willing, only right now that's just not an option for me since I'm short on space for rats/mice. I plan on building a rat room very soon to bump up my production of them, and hopefully get back on track. Again thanks for the info, I really appreciate it.

Darren.
-----
If you don't stand behind our troops, please, feel free to stand in front of them!

www.rezendesreptiles.com

Age is just as important as weight, in my opinion. My first piece of advise is to feed the heck out of them. If they eat, feed them. If you are keeping pet Balls, feeding them every few weeks or so is probably ok. If you are going to be breeding them, that feeding schedule probably won't cut it, and you will end up with small clutches and skinny snakes by the time the season is over. Feed them as much as they will eat and see what they look like in December.

Dave

I don't breed yet,. Like you I'm gathering new information. Based off of what I learned from the past few months, I totally agree with Brian and the other guy to an extent. You want to make sure also that if you start "power feeding" that you aren't just making them fat because that is unhealthy as well. ALSO, you don't HAVE to start YOUR season at the same time as everybody else. You can always start later, there is nothing wrong with that. THe most important thing is to make sure your snakes are healthy so that they produce good clutches and survive the adventure

Enjoy
-----
Teresa
------------------
3.0 Dogs (2.0 Chihuahuas, 1.0 Toy Poodle)
1.5 Cats
1.0 Cockatiel
1.0 Indonesian Blue tongue skink

Ball Pythons
0.1 100% Het Albino (Watson)
1.0 Pastel (Sweets)
0.1 Spider (Daisy)
1.0 Albino