Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was wondering whats the success rate of breeding females at 2 yrs of age and considering that they r 1500grams and over....and i got 4 females now and 2 r 1000grams, 900grams, and 800grams....and going to be at least 24-26 months of age.....and should i be feeding them alot to get to that size or should i start slowing down so they dont become fat....because from what ive heard they keep growing untill 3-4 yrs. thanks for tha advice in advance....

This is just speculation but I was thinking about this the other day....if you feed them heavily before breeding....making them fat.....once they lay eggs wouldn't that take up most of their fat reserves...because the eggs take so much?

Either way...the older the snake the better chances you have to produce with them. Remember these snakes are known to live up into their 20s and 30s....why rush them so much?

If you want to try and get them up to size for breeding season you can try...I can't tell you what to do....but if you wait until next year they'll be even bigger and give you more eggs...but if you breed them this year......they lose alot of weight to lay eggs....so they would be lighter for next year than they would be if you were to wait...catch my drift?
Just my opinion.....
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Luke Martin
Bronze Serpent Reptiles

I bred 3 18 month old, 1700-1900g females this year and got a 100% hatch rate from them (17 eggs). It's about size, not age. Don't "superfeed" to get 'em big, feed them what they'll eat. Also, female balls typically have a 'breeding life' of about 10-15 years or so, so they don't really have until they're 30.

You must have misread my post...I didn't say they breed for that long....I said they live that long....
It is the combination of age and size...you got lucky and got good clutches from them...but I've seen the same thing happen with breeding young females but they don't produce.
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Luke Martin
Bronze Serpent Reptiles

Do either of you have 15 plus year old females that have stopped breeding or balls that are believed to have died of old age?

I'm just wondering what the evidence is for the quoted breeding life and lifespan numbers.

Seems to me that there are relatively very few balls of known age (i.e. captive bred or captive hatched) older than about 12 (the first cb albino ball python). In fact the numbers of captive hatched didn't peak until a few years back so the average age of breeder females may only be 5 or so just because that is how old the average ball in captivity is.

The record for a ball living in captivity is in the upper 40's but the sample size of balls that have been well cared for that long is so small that I don't know that we can even make a very good guess as to what their average lifespan should be. Same thing on breeder life.

There where very very few female balls being bred in captivity 15 years ago (even 10 years ago was much less than 5 years ago which was much less than now). Back before the albino there was very little interest in the species. Balls had a terrible record for not eating in captivity as most imports where wild caught adults. It wasn't until they finally got the idea of digging up eggs and gravid females and invented the captive hatched baby imports that feeding ball pythons became readily available about the same time that Bob Clark proved the albino gene in 1992.

A very good friend of mine has a Ball that he personally owned for 34 years, it was a hatchling (I think) when he bought it from Hank Molt in 1970. It is still in perfect health.
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CB

"I'm a truckin bassmole, and proud of it"

when u mean 'superfeed' do u mean feed them every 3-4 days...or do u mean force feeding....because i was feeding 3-4 days but im thinking about changing it to 5-7 days...and if they dont feed then i just take it out and try again 5-7 days later....

I offer food every 4-5 days regardless of age, if they eat, they eat. They want more, I'll offer them more. Forcing an animal to eat is irresponsible, stoopid and unhealthy. They should tell you when they want to eat, not the other way around. My females are all 1000g by their first birthdays, and 1800-2400g by their second. I have a 100% hatch rate with having bred any of my just-under 2 year old girls. Proof is in the pudding, and my pudding is python-licious.

Hey mykee....What are you feeding your Bp's? I am feeding my ball pythons mice every 3-4 days and they seem to be putting on the weight...should I switch to rats?(mice are easier to get for me). I sure would like to see those 1000g yearlings!!! Any other advice to get em big? Thanks!

Rats will put weight on them quicker....but sometimes when they are already established on mice...its hard to switch them over....but I bet someone is going to say...."no I've never had a problem....and so on"....
but its the truth from my experiences that ones that start out and go a while with mice are harder to switch over to rats....

Anyway...good luck on getting them nice and big to breed....
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Luke Martin
Bronze Serpent Reptiles

Out of the 3.9 of my own.
...and the 1.9 i am currently babysitting...

There is one 03 male ("Recoil",and one 04 female that are "mousers" !

The male is one of two brothers i purchased as possible het Caramel.His brother("R-con"will eat anything!So he gets rats.

R-con... was 518 grams on 7-25-04
and
Recoil...was 330 grams on 7-7-04

So if he switches to rats for you ..great !
..If not,he will just take a bit longer to grow is all.

I havent given up on either of them yet.
They get offered a rat every third feeding or so.

Good luck
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3.9 Ball Pythons
1.1 Thayeri Kings
0.0.1 Viper Boa
1.1 Felines

Rats are the only way to go. Every last one of my BP's are rat eaters, and have been for years. I also have 17 hatchling balls that I've hatched out and they'll get their first meal of mice, maybe a second mouse meal and then rats forever.

yah they r only 800-1000grams now...so i want to start breeding winter of 05' and hopefully they would be at 1800-2000grams...well maybe not that big but 1500-1800 grams would be nice....haha...

I have a July 03 albino female... that weighs around 1400g right now without any food in her... Ive been feeding her every Saterday, and she never ever misses a meal... I have her on medium rats right now... also if one of my other balls dont eat then I just through the extra rat in with her... shes a trash disposile... I still have 4 more months to fatten her up so Im planning on bredding her this year to my Axantic P het for albino... Now I call only pray that she takes!!!
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Joe Nimeskern Jr
GGexotics(@hotmail.com)