Reptile & Amphibian Forums

how old must a female ball generally be?? mine's a year and 4 months is that ok??

see one of my males i picked up a while ago i housed with another "male" and well uh it turns out that he's a she and i took one out to feed it and noticed that they were "locked up"
and i'm assuming this is a bad thing because she's so young
she is fairly big for her age but i fear not big enough
what happens to a gravid female that is under the suggested age?
i'm gunna seperate them............unless she's old enough
thanks

Girlfriend: your room smells like reptiles
Me: are you saying my balls smell?

and if its too small, it most likely won't become gravid. Ball Pythons breed anytime, anywhere. You basically have to shoot them for them not to lock up. But getting a female to ovulate and lay fertile eggs is a different story. Not hard, but it will take more than an accidental breeding.
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I realize she is not gravid right now my Q is if i leave them together and she becomes gravid is this going to be harmful to her because she is to small or to young
if she will be fine i'll continue to let them go at it
if not imma have to seperate them i just don't have the room so i don't wanna make it unless its nessesary
thanks

Snakes should not be housed together except for breeding purposes. You are not breeding an animal that young and that small so separate them! Its unlikely that she will ovulate and produce eggs, but if by chance she does, it won't be a good thing being so young and small. Don't take the chance with your animals by being lazy.
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not lazy, poor more than any thing but i'll just have to make a way
it won't hurt to keep em together for another 2-3 days will it?
thanks

Nobody in North America is too broke to buy a $5 Rubbermaid. If you took the responsibility of owning an animal, TAKE the responsibility of owning an animal!
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Ouch! Take it a little easier on the guy, Jeff. No reason to jump down his throat here. In fact, it sounded to me like he was going to do exactly as you suggested.

$5 sure isn't much, except that he may have to buy a heating pad ($10-$20), a water dish ($5-$10), bedding (okay, so newspaper is practically a negligible expense), a new thermometer, and whatever else might be necessary.

Maybe he doesn't get his pay check for a couple days and he's broke for right now. I don't think he's irresponsible at all in this case. I also don't think that keeping two bp's together can be considered negligent in any sense of the word. It may be "better" to keep them separate, but if it were truly hazardous to the animals, I think we'd see a little less shared housing at the pet shops.

Also, I don't know if I necessarily agree that keeping bp's together can be THAT bad for them. Might not be advisable, but I wouldn't give someone the impression that they might want to put off having dinner for a couple days so that they can separate the animals IMMEDIATELY.

Just a thought. I'm really not trying to start a flame war. I've seen some of your animals, Jeff, and I respect your experience and expertise. I just think you might have jumped on our friend here a bit too quickly.