Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Alright, I finally decided to try my luck at breeding, and I want to do it right. I've done plenty of research and from what I've gathered, there is certainly more than one way of doing things, so I'm going to post my entire record here to see if any of you have any tips.

My one real question is, since I didn't witness a lock between my snakes, when should I put my male back in with my female? Yes I know this answer will vary, I'd just like to get an average.

breeding record: Moose - Spider male / Shye - normal female

Shye starting weight 1789g empty, 5 years old
Moose weight 1239g empty, 2 years old
Photoperiod: 12 hours on, 12 hours off
Temperatures: hot spot 87 24/7, cool side 77/day, 73/night measured with infrared temperature gun
11/3/11.. Moose is put into Shye's cage
11/8/11.. Moose shed
11/3-11/10/11.. No locks witnessed
11/10/11.. 11pm Moose removed from Shye's cage
11/10/11.. 11:30pm Shye refuses 100g rat, POUNDS 4 40g live rats, Moose refuses

One of the nice things about balls is anyone can get involved and breed ball pythons, it's that easy! As you said everyone does things differently. I'd put your female on large - jumbo rats to beef her up for egg production personally. I'd also limit your male to small rats less often. I get much better breeding activity out of my slender males then I do a well fed male. If you haven't witnessed a lock they likely haven't bred. In my experience balls lock for many hours at a time mostly 24-48hrs. I would put the male in with your girl for 24hrs. Say put him in with her at 6:00pm. The following day I check for a lock in the am. If nothing I may pull the male or leave him and check again at 6pm. If nothing at that time he comes out for a 2 day break. Continue this cycle till May or untill she is gravid. That's the way I do it and it's working great!

Good Luck!
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John Light
JPLReptiles@gmail.com
(954) 903-8061

I've heard that they lock for a long time or as little as 4 hours, I tried halfheartedly to breed them in Feb and they were locked for at least 24 hours with no success. She is refusing big rats so I am feeding her multiple weanlings, 4 last time. Thanks so much for the tips!

check out this link. Everything you need to know.

http://ballpython.ca/gallery/breeding.html

I read through that but it's always nice to be able to talk with breeders as well as research. Thanks for letting me know that was a reputable source!

welcome to the nerve racking world of ball python breeding. I've been breeding ball pythons since 1995 and seriously since 2004. What I've found is it works best for me to place a male in a female's cage and not the other way. My schedule is 3 days in with female 4 days in his own cage. On the second day in his cage, males and females are offered small rats (I don't like to offer large meals while temps are lower at night). If they eat great, if not no biggie as any breeding animals should have very good weight (thin males should not be bred as if they go off-feed they could die but I don't like my breeder males to be fat either. I think the term "thin" for males can get people in trouble). As far as observing lock-ups it isn't always cut and dry. I have had one of my super vanilla males breed for 3 years now and have never seen him lock-up but he has sired 12 clutches and I check on him twice a day, he is just quick lol. I will say that when I come up with my breeding plan, I never use multiple males when any recessive mutation is involved. I continue this morph with the chosen female for the life of the snake as I don't want any issue with retained sperm. The only time a female will get a different morph is if I give her 3 years off and then only co-dom/dom males.
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Josh & Krysty Hutto

Various Ball Pythons, boas, dogs, cats, fish, a couple sulcatas and a few other odds and ends.

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrier as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

Thanks a bunch for this input!! That makes sense about the smaller meals with temps being low. I think I'll keep my male out for about 4 days at a time since that is about what I've seen most people say including you. Wow, that male IS fast, good for snakes, not for people.... ;P