The sperm life of a snake?

PEACE and LOVE to all my fellow owners and breeders of balls I have a crazy question for all of you. How long can a snakes sperm stay in a female if she has no eggs to fertilize?

I heard a wierd story recently (wierd for me i guess) that a normal female was breed to a male spider only. While several successful locks were witnessed no eggs were produced. In the next season the same normal female was breed to a pastel male only. This time with the success of eggs being produced. Five made it to hatch out of eight total and one was a spider.(or so the story goes)

I got my first ball python in 1999, but I just got into breeding and morphs in 2010. This story seemed way to far out there to be true but with my limited knowledge of breeding I thought I'd ask the brothers and sisters of my passion! Thanks so much in advance for taken your time to respond!!!!

It is completely true! Ball python females can retain sperm from previous breedings, and while it's not horribly common, it's certainly not unheard of. I've only ever heard of a female retaining sperm through one season, but perhaps a more experienced owner has a different story to tell. But as far as the legitimacy of the story, believe me, it happens. That is 100% true.

I've heard crazy stories of females retaining sperm up to a year. I actually have a big 4000+g female I paired up late last season. It was some time in march. The male bee I was pairing her up with got a slight case of scale rot so I stopped pairing them to let him recover. Now for the past month she has been showing signs of being gravid. I'm crossing my fingers for eggs!


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It is generally understood among breeders that a female can retain sperm up to one year. There is even the possibility of a multi-sired clutch. Spider breeds normal last year this year she gets the lesser. Eggs hatch and low and behold there are spiders normals and lessers in the clutch. To answer the next question no the two will not cross to produce a lesser spider.
The risk you can run is if you bred for a not so noticeable mutation like yellowbelly last year with out success, then breed for spiders this year. You may produce yellowbellies with out realizing it unless you look for them.

In 2010 due to a move I stop all my pairings in April (a few female took and laid egg that year and most did not), the following year in March 2011 a female that did not go the previous season and that I was planning on starting to pair (haven't had a chance yet) ovulated.....so you do the math ;)

Nice.....thanks to all that responded and all that viewed this thread!!!! I love you guys for being so open and sharing info of your past experiences and knowledge. Very good feedback about pairings, kinda cool to know if I pair a female this year and she doesn't "go" that the clutch could be multi-sired next time around.


Thanks again to you all you rock out loud!!!!!!!!!

I had one femle a couple of years ago paired mid summer into early fall,saw nothing,stopped pairing. The next july laid a surprise clutch.

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Sometimes up to a year, some even longer depending on temperatures. This is why its very important to pay attention to what has bred what, especially when dealing with Recessive mutations.