I posted this almost a year ago...
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...64-Lower-Temps
I wanted to bring the conversation about temps and breeding to this forum and also update on how this season is going for us with keeping our adult girls at slightly lower temps.
In a nut shell...GREAT.
Temps for Adult Females:
Winter - 74-75 cool side / 85-89 warm side / Room: 70
Now - 75-80 cool side / 86-90 warm side / Room: 75
(The basement naturally cooled in the winter, didn't adjust the thermostats at all)
Here is our season so far:
We had 17 girls up to size this past fall but 5 didn't develop follicles (that I can tell as of today) so we didn't bother to continue paring them up.
So 12 girls were up to size, and developed follicles.
So far 5 Clutches on the Ground
- 40 Good Eggs
- 2 Slugs
- 1 Infertile Boob
4 Girls are due to lay this month
2 Girls are due to ovulate any day now
1 Girl has big follicles but wont ovulate for a while
Not to count chickens before they hatch but it looks like we'll have 11-12 clutches out of 17 girls. That's a 64.5-70.5% success rate.
Also to note, they all ate up until a month or two before ovulating and the 5 girls that laid ate within a few days after laying. 3 of the 5 girls that didn't develop follicles also stopped eating so I palpate them once in a while to make sure I don't miss anything.
Hope this is a help to anyone out there. I'm almost positive now that our past slug-fest seasons were due to the temps being too high.