Touchy subject that i need some light shined on....

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Disclaimer: Not looking for any flamers here.... I understand what the majority of the members of this forum believe in regards to keeping multiple ball pythons together. If you can't look past that, please do not bother to reply to this thread. I am not a newbee keeper, and these are healthy, thriving snakes. This is a BREEDING subject.... Not a HUSBANDRY subject.

I have RBI CB70 racks. I am keeping my grow out females (future breeders) two per tub. All of these females were over a year old when they started being kept together. All of them are strong feeders and have continued to stay on feed just fine after being housed together. And yes, of course they are separated for their weekly meal. They have been kept like this for many months now without issue.

Now here is the topic.... These females are approaching breeding age and weight... Some of them have already reached a breeding age and weight. When it comes time to breed them, do they have to be separated? Have any of you breeders out there ever introduced a male to two females at once for breeding purposes? What did you observe? what were the results? Did both females go? Did you observe locks with both of the females or did the male end up having a favorite?

I figure it would be good because common sense would tell me that the male would be fine with it. All joking aside, I would imagine he would be even more excited and more focused on the task at hand. Watching the videos from africa... when they guys pull the BP's out of their holes or termite mounds, there is always more then one in the hole.... just like when they pull the clutches of eggs out, there are multiple clutches. So multiple females living together and reproducing seems to be the norm as far as mother nature is concerned.

I figure it may not work so good because what if he is for whatever reason more attracted to one then the other? What if he only lets her have it... then the less attractive one never has a chance to get pregnant?

Any info you can give on this subject without the flames would be greatly appreciated!

[blackcrystal22]

I would assume that it would be fine.
However, it would be more difficult to track the breeding between the 3 snakes, IMO. I think that if you put one male in, and you only saw locks with one of the females, you may have a better chance of getting the other female to lock if you put them together alone.
Like, one female would be neglected more often than the other, and one may not produce while the other one does. It just seems more risky to me by giving him one choice instead of 2 each time if he ends up going to the same one each and every time.

[Adam_Wysocki]

I can't look passed it ... if you don't like what I have to say, don't read it ... just sayin.

Yes, one male will breed with multiple females ... I've bred in groups of 2.3, 2.5, 3.1, and just about eveything in between. You'll have problems when it comes to laying if you keep them together though.

No stop being a cheap skate and get each of those girls their own tub ... it's much better for them and they'll love you for it.

-adam

[TankMasterOG]

I think what your doing is badass and would like to know what would happen?
Wher did you see this video of Africa? You might be on to something..
Ballpython breeding is all about something new......

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Yes, one male will breed with multiple females ... I've bred in groups of 2.3, 2.5, 3.1, and just about eveything in between. You'll have problems when it comes to laying if you keep them together though.

Thanks for chiming in on this Adam (and everyone else). Yeah i was thinking about that... When you say I will have problems when it comes to laying if they are kept together, what will happen? What have you experienced? like I said earlier, it seems to happen in the wild, but I am sure there isn't a 100% hatch rate very often in the wild either...

[rabernet]

Mike, what made you choose to house two females to a tub? Was there some benefit to the animals that prompted you to do so? Or was it because you didn't have enough tub space for all the females to have their own tubs? I'm curious why you'd make that choice, and when I'm curious, I ask.

My first season, I put Winston in with 2 females at the same time in order to get one female that I had more receptive to breeding. I had not observed any locks between her and Winston, and so this was one other trick that had been passed on to me.

I only bred them in the 1.2 one time, and after that, it was always 1.1.

[dr del]

Hi,

My male showed no intrest in one of my females this year but locked with one of the others almost as soon as he hit the floor of the tub.

So I put both females in the same tub and introduced him to see if that would help. He locked up with the one he had ignored that night.

The one he seemed to prefer never did go but the "ugly duck" (from his point of view ) laid 9 eggs for me.

I do only keep the pairs together for one or two days at a time though as I remove the waterbowls and hides when I put them together.

It might be totally pointless but I seem to remember reading that not sharing a waterbowl can help stop any disease spreading - none of them are sick but it seemed a sensible precaution.


dr del

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Mike, what made you choose to house two females to a tub? Was there some benefit to the animals that prompted you to do so? Or was it because you didn't have enough tub space for all the females to have their own tubs? I'm curious why you'd make that choice, and when I'm curious, I ask.

an honest question deserves and honest answer.

The answer to your question is really two fold.

1.) For me, it isn't so much a financial issue, but a space and marital issue. We will soon be moving out of this CRAPPY little house. Until then, while I do have money for more racks, I simply don't have the room, or the marital patience required to acquire them. Sure an extra rack could be put here or there, but in all fairness to my wife we are simply out of room at the moment.

2.) In my particular situation there is no reason not to. Will the snakes benefit from living in pairs instead of living by themselves? Who knows? I don't think they will BUT I also don't think it will be detrimental to them, or even be uncomfortable to them in any way shape or form. Keep in mind, these are healthy, established snakes that are showing no sings of stress. They still eat every single time food is offered and are growing just as fast as others in my collection of the same age that are living by themselves.

Please let me add that I am NOT a situation of a newbee keeper keeping two brand new Petco hatchling BP's together (when not even sure of the sex). This is an experienced keeper keeping pairs of same sized established females together without seeing any negative effects.

I must admit I am kinda surprised nobody has commented on the movies from Africa where they pull multiple females, and multiple clutches from the same hole. Please share your thoughts on this too.

[jkobylka]

Yes. Many breeders put a male with several females in the same "breeding tub" often larger than cb-70 for the entire season, with at least acceptable results.

I'm a control freak, so I do the 1:1 method so I can track exactly what happens, but its not the only way.

Justin

[monk90222]

1.) For me, it isn't so much a financial issue, but a space and marital issue. We will soon be moving out of this CRAPPY little house. Until then, while I do have money for more racks, I simply don't have the room, or the marital patience required to acquire them. Sure an extra rack could be put here or there, but in all fairness to my wife we are simply out of room at the moment.

Maybe you should have waited until you moved to a bigger place before getting so many snakes?