Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if Bp's ovulate the same time each year. I have purchased some gravid WC balls. Once they lay i am going to figure out approx. when they ovulated so i will know when to introduce a male to them. Thanks in advance.
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Thomas Jones
aligatorhunter@earthlink.net

No one is to be trusted

Ball pythons ovulate in the wild during a narrow period of time. This is known as the vast majority of eggs that are harvested from wild caught females are deposited within a two week period (info taken from Dr. Mark Seward's "Ball Python Breeding".

As far as getting ball pythons to ovulate within a specific narrow period of time in captivity... if you find a way to do this consistently, then you'll truly be on to something. It would mean that you have discovered a specific environmental stimulus or combination of, probably the one most important to getting ball pythons to successfully reproduce. As it stands now, I think we're (obviously) doing enough to get them to produce... but the fact that we get eggs almost throughout the year shows that we'ere not doing it perfectly. Even enormous ball python collections still show wild variation as to when females ovulate and eggs are deposited. Knowing factors which have the ability to cause ovulation within a narrow period (as in the wild) will undoubtedly increase the overall success in producing ball pythons in captivity.

I suspect that you'll have some difficulty in breeding your wild caught females for some time. The greatest hurdle should be in getting them to feed consistently enough to put on weight. If they feed for you, then consider yourself fortunate. Once they put on enough weight to produce another clutch, then both cooling, increased humidity, and male contact are known to induce breeding and/or induce/sustain ova development and subsequent ovulation.

Please post when/if your female lays eggs. We're all interested in this sort of thing and would like to know how it turns out (especially since yours is an import).