Breeding questions

[Scubaf250]

I was reading this article but can't seem to visualize the whole sets of 12 thing... Does anyone have the chart from that article anymore? I can't seem to get the attachment to work.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-Many-to-Breed

It sounds like each female is in her own enclosure but that can't be right...

Is it three groups of 1.4 and each time a female gets pregnant you remove her to her own enclosure. Then when the baby rats are weaned, that was her rest period from the male and she goes back in?

Or do you leave the male in with the 4 females for 4 weeks then move him to the next set of 4 females and the ones he just bred all give birth at the same time?

Thanks for the help guys!

[Sarin]

Personally, I have 1 female rat per snake I own. I like to have 12 or so more females during hatchling season, however. I have them in groups of 1.4. I Keep the male in 24/7. I don't have any problems doing it this way. If I have a surplus, I co2 them and put them in the freezer for my F/T eaters.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Here is what I do for optimal production

I have 1 female per snake.

I have each of my male in one tub and each week females go in as they become available again (anywhere from 2 to 3 females per tubs), once a female is pregnant she goes in a birthing tub where she will stay about 7 to 10 after her babies ar born, then it's communal nursing (anywhere between 2 to 4 females with their babies in each tubs), then once the babies are weaned (age 3 to 4 weeks) the females go back in rotation with a male.

The reason to keep the males away and the females individually in birthing tubs for the first 7 days of the babies life is to prevent injuries to the babies who are very gragile at that time, it's common for females to fight over babies injuring them and leading to death which can represent a 10% loss or more in production.

Bottome line you need to find what works for YOU.

[snakesRkewl]

We kind of follow the same rule, about 1 adult breeding female per snake.
We do both harem breeding and seperating the moms for the entire time they have babies.
Out moms with babies in their own tubs are almost always fatter and bigger than the babies coming from the harem breeding.

[Scubaf250]

Cool thanks guys! I found a video on YouTube that was pretty helpful also, I think it's what was being described in the post I linked to.

http://youtu.be/Vf_PVG6VJSE

They have a rack with 4 of the the really big cement tubs. Each tub has 3 males to 12 females. The females are removed to a smaller tub in another rack to give birth and wean. Then the babies go into a big tub to get raised up to the right size.

I'm definitely going to give it a shot. I'll probably come up with my own method sense I think 15 rats per tub sounds crowded but I like rats so it will be pretty cool =P

[Stewart_Reptiles]

3 males to 12 females

I would stay away from such setting, no more than one male with a group of females.

While males from the same litter can be kept together for a while without the presence of females, keeping sexually mature males with a group of females will more then likely lead to fights, severe injuries and death.

[snakesRkewl]

1 male per tub or plan on picking up the pieces...
We have kept younger males with large males without issue, but the minute the big one feels his rathood is in jeopardy he'll take the smaller/weaker one out.

[Scubaf250]

Yeah that's what I was thinking, I had some left over mice once and they were males. Had to separate them because they were kicking each others butts!

[tangerine]

I was reading this article but can't seem to visualize the whole sets of 12 thing...
...
Is it three groups of 1.4 and each time a female gets pregnant you remove her to her own enclosure. Then when the baby rats are weaned, that was her rest period from the male and she goes back in?

As I understand it, this setup is designed to give you a litter each week, so only one female goes in with the male at a time. I'm doing a modified version of this in big Sterilite tubs. I'm not quite up to my full production (still need a second male and 2 more girls), but this is my plan:

I'll have two males, each in his own tub, and a big sorority tub with all the girls. One girl goes into boy 1's tub. A week later another girl goes in with boy 2. Each girl stays with their respective male for 2 weeks to ensure the boys got the job done. (Because I've only got one male right now, I've been producing one litter every 2 weeks and supplementing from the pet store for feeders.)

For the third week, the preggo girl goes in her own maternity tub to give birth. I keep her there until the babies have their eyes open and can chase her down to nurse, then mom and litter go into the big sorority tub to hang out and grow up. Babies wean and get fed off, hold-backs grow out, and mom stays in the sorority for a couple weeks of vacation, then she goes back in with one of the boys to start the cycle over.

So far this is working out pretty well for me, but I'm only on my third litter using this method. If you're feeding larger sizes then I guess it doesn't matter so much when each litter is produced and harem breeding is fine, but I need pinks and crawlers every week, so I want to make sure I have the right sizes on hand.