Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I read this on Markus Jaynes site:

But First:
The reason I bring this up is because i have a group of Balls that are breeding during the day and doing nothing at nite. anyone else going through this as well...........thank you for your input......I use ralphs method......10 hrs day, 14 hrs night light and drop temps.....

Is it really necessary to change the light cycle at all........and just do the temps? Has anyone taken a small group from their colony and tried this?

Now the real question:.......with no light cycle change, would there be better follicular developement, more consistent breedings, more viable eggs, etc.........you get the picture.

1.In October we lower our temps at night. The hot spot goes down to 82 F and the cool end is 72 F

2. We start to adjust our lighting to make shorter days. 14 hours dark - 10 hours of light. We use natural sunlight spectrum bulbs in our room. Although Ball pythons come from Africa and they live on or very close to the equator, where there is no light change (12/12), we still increase the length of darkness during the breeding season. Is there any scientific reasoning behind it? Not really...it's just the way we do it and it works for us. I think more hours in the dark lead to more security. More security...the more comfortable they are and the more they may breed. It also marks a change in seasons.

Here is the link if you want to read the rest:

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

Yet we breed during the wet season and most breeders think low pressure systems actually stimulate breeding. The temps in Africa are pretty consistent year round aswell. The difference in summer and winter temps is only a couple degrees. Just throwing out some more things to think abuot.

Eric
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www.ESReptiles.com

I would appreciate any info you have to offer.........thank you.

Here are a few thoughts. In captivity ball pythons are hatched out most months of the year. Light cycle effects many other species but I'm not sure it's necessary even though I cylce mind the same as you do (if it's not broke don't fix it).This is my thinking is you must feed to breed, meaning in Africa I would assume that the prey item has a fluctuation in supply and demand and over the years the ball python has adapted to this fluctuation so that when hatchlings emerge food is available. In captivity food is and shouldn't be a problem so as we feed our animals and they continue to grow and most importantly store fat which is needed for the follicles to grow. So because we all feed ours differently, fat is stored at different rates and females are ready for breeding at different times so we have babies hatching many months of the year, but it's not that way in Africa because of the food situation. Something to think about ?
Mike Derks

Precisely. Not just balls, but all animals time their breeding to assure there's a food supply when the babies are born/hatched. No food...babies die. Onset of a wet season, cooler season leading to warmer, all are factors. If there's no photoperiod, there's a wet/dry period. There'a almost always a season of some kind.
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