So where would I go from here?

I'm a new owner with a single male that is about 25" long and (I think) 8 or 9 mos old. If I wanted to breed what would be the best overall course of action? How long would it take for me to get my first clutch?

4-6 more months and he may be making sperm plugs. If you're just interested in normals, since the female does all of the work making and laying eggs, you'll need a female that is (usu.) 3 years old and at least 1500-1800g in body weight.


The female lays 75% (or more) of her own weight in eggs, and stops eating during the breeding cycle, so the bigger (but not FATTER) the female, the bigger and healthier the clutch tends to be.

If you're interested in the morphs, unless U can afford to buy a morph male and start crossing for F1 generation hets, and then the F2 crosses again (about 5-7 years of work) a 1.1 het pair of whatever morph you get enjoyment from is a good start.


This is what I've done. With rescues or buying, I've got adult males, and now have a female that should be ready for NEXT season. I want to start w/a normal clutch in order to get the practical, hands-on, IRL experience w/a normal clutch first.

My hets--albino 1.1 and pied 1.1 are still too young, so they've got some growing to do, but in about 3-5 years, I should be breeding them for the homozygous babies. Eventually, when I'm successful, I want to breed an albino pied.

I'm also planning for lemon pastels, and axanthics and a few spiders for some bees. :D :D

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Originally Posted by bearhart

I'm a new owner with a single male that is about 25" long and (I think) 8 or 9 mos old. If I wanted to breed what would be the best overall course of action? How long would it take for me to get my first clutch?

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Well if you had a good amount of money and bought a adult female you COULD have eggs next season.Now if you want sound advice here you go.If you really want to start breeding ball pythons and not fail bigtime DO NOT RUSH INTO IT.If you try to rush into breeding more times then others you will FAIL.If you do not have the love for the animals first then once you get frustrated you will giveup.I recommend you raise your snake for awhile(i think your a newbie) and make sure he is well cared for then think about getting into breeding them or such.

I'm only interested in normals and I'm not in a huge rush.

There is a nice adult female at the same place I got my male from. She's short but stocky (or "valuptuous" as the guys there say). Anyway, she's a majorly cool snake and it was tough to put her back!

Does my male need to develop anal spurs before he's potent? He doesn't seem to have these things I've read about and they seem to be involved in mating.

So most breeders just follow the yearly cycle?

When they have snakes marked as "breeders" at the store what does that mean? What are the changes that a healthy snake randomly selected from a store would not be breedable for some reason?

spurs have nothing to do with anything really, except that they're vestigial rear limbs and can be used in courtship, there's nothing to develop. they can be on males or females. some breeders follow a strict yearly sched, and some just introduce whenever, which is why there are sometimes random babies in say, midwinter or something. and being sold as breeders is probably just older snakes, and calling them breeders makes you want to spend more money

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Originally Posted by qiksilver

spurs have nothing to do with anything really, except that they're vestigial rear limbs and can be used in courtship, there's nothing to develop. they can be on males or females. some breeders follow a strict yearly sched, and some just introduce whenever, which is why there are sometimes random babies in say, midwinter or something. and being sold as breeders is probably just older snakes, and calling them breeders makes you want to spend more money

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All ball pythons do have spurs and only the males use them during breeding times

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Originally Posted by joepythons

All ball pythons do have spurs and only the males use them during breeding times

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oops, yeah sorry i was coming from the angle that not all boids have them.

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Originally Posted by qiksilver

oops, yeah sorry i was coming from the angle that not all boids have them.

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No problem:cool:

What are these "sperm plugs"? If I were to purchase a female that is already old enough I would just have to wait for my male to mature. How would I know when he's ready? Is there some outward sign or do you just have to try and see?

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Originally Posted by joepythons

All ball pythons do have spurs and only the males use them during breeding times

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I've seen pictures that look like they have little claws there. Mine does not have that. What gives?