How many months do you pair?

[EverEvolvingExotics]

On the 3 on 3 off schedule how long do you keep pairing if you don't find any eggs? I'm not anywhere near this point, but I thought it would be good to know.

[h&tmaster]

same here, 1st lock happening currently.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I keep putting them together until I am convinced that she is either prego or isn't going to go this year... and I should wait till next year... depending on the circumstances of the female that is usually around may or June when my first clutches start to hatch.

Important note: When you breed them long periods of time it is extremely important to give the males a full week off here and there. They need the rest, and they are usually breeding machines after the rest.

[TheSnakeEye]

In for this.

[loonunit]

All of them? I put them together once every other week for a few days, until I see an ovulation or the season "ends" and I stop seeing locks. I'll slow it down to once a month if I'm seeing a lot of blood around the boy's vent (my black pastel George is so enthusiastic, he's leaving streaks on his pied girlfriend's white patches. YUCK.) I'll also slow it down or even just stop pairing if the boy has been hunger fasting for several months.

Is that what you're asking about, the boys who stop eating and lose weight like crazy? That would probably depends on the boy: George the black pastel is 1300 grams, so he has a lot of weight to spare. My piebald boy Winston is only 600 grams. And Winston's got two girlfriends, so I'll have to keep an eye on his eating habits and weight.

[EverEvolvingExotics]

I keep putting them together until I am convinced that she is either prego or isn't going to go this year.

How do you tell if she isn't going to go? Is it as simple as pairing for 3-5 months without seeing ovulation?

I started pairing my het hypos and het piebalds back in late October. I've seen the hypos lock once (but I'm not checking very often), and the het pieds locking several times. After I saw a couple locks from the het pieds I gave both pairings a little over a week off, and both pairs are still eating like pigs. The other 2 normal females have been paired twice and I've noticed a few locks as well from my spider and lemon blast males. One more female to try out.

All of them? I put them together once every other week for a few days, until I see an ovulation or the season "ends" and I stop seeing locks. I'll slow it down to once a month if I'm seeing a lot of blood around the boy's vent (my black pastel George is so enthusiastic, he's leaving streaks on his pied girlfriend's white patches. YUCK.) I'll also slow it down or even just stop pairing if the boy has been hunger fasting for several months.

Is that what you're asking about, the boys who stop eating and lose weight like crazy? That would probably depends on the boy: George the black pastel is 1300 grams, so he has a lot of weight to spare. My piebald boy Winston is only 600 grams. And Winston's got two girlfriends, so I'll have to keep an eye on his eating habits and weight.

What do you mean by "All of them?"

Thanks for the help. I was mostly looking for a time line of when you end your hopes of a pair producing for you. If any of them start loosing weight I have planned to stop breeding them. Luckily everyone is still chowing down well for me.

[loonunit]

What do you mean by "All of them?"

Thanks for the help. I was mostly looking for a time line of when you end your hopes of a pair producing for you. If any of them start loosing weight I have planned to stop breeding them. Luckily everyone is still chowing down well for me.

Oh, I meant, I pair "all of the months." Pretty much non-stop from October to May. Are you having problems with a pair that just doesn't seem interested?

Last year I started pairing mid-October, and just kept putting them together all winter. Sometimes they get late starts: last year George and his pied girl locked non-stop from November until May, while my het lavenders ignored each other until February or March. But then the het lavenders really got going in late winter. I ended up with the female het lavender ovulating and laying 5 good eggs, and the piebald female reabsorbing her follicles. Both couples sort of lost interest completely around mid-May, but both couples have picked it right up again after the first cold snap in October.

So this year my established couples are right back at it, but all my new pairs are playing the "THIS is MY side, THAT is YOUR side" game. I have three other males I've introduced to females, one 2008 boy and two 2009 boys, and none of them has done any more than cuddle with their girls. And the 2008 even locked with my big pied female last year, but I guess he doesn't like his pewter girlfriend as well...

I'm not really worried about it. Exasperated, sure, but not worried... It's still early in the season. Heck, in December and January we'll probably still tell you it's early in the season. You can drop the pairings to once a month if they're making you crazy. But I wouldn't give up completely until May.

[WingedWolfPsion]

I start in mid to late November, and stop when I have clutches in the incubator, and not a single female will lock any longer, after 2 weeks. You can generally tell if the males are interested, or not. If they're not interested, the female isn't releasing the proper pheromones, and there's no point in pairing any longer.

Sometimes a male can get a hormone boost if you give him a brief introduction to combat with another male, but in most cases, it's not necessary. It's probably not the male's fault when breeding doesn't occur.

if you want to check, take your disinterested male, and put him in with a girl who's already been locking up--if he starts courting her, you can remove him before anything happens, and you know it's the females he's being put with that just aren't ready yet. He will only court a female who's giving off the proper pheromone trail to let him know she's receptive.

[Jonas@Balls2TheWall]

I keep putting them together until I am convinced that she is either prego or isn't going to go this year... and I should wait till next year... depending on the circumstances of the female that is usually around may or June when my first clutches start to hatch.

Important note: When you breed them long periods of time it is extremely important to give the males a full week off here and there. They need the rest, and they are usually breeding machines after the rest.

This^^^^

[loonunit]

For the record, here's what my pairs are doing right now:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...not-so-awesome

And I have no idea how to tell if a female is going to ovulate or not. Just based on the frequency of locking, I would have guessed my piebald female would have ovulated last season, and my het lavender girl would have to wait another year. But they switched it up on me, and I ended up with a lavender albino instead of black pastels het for pied. I guess that's okay....