Breeding questions from Russian colleagues

Good day for everybody!
My name is Olga & I'm one of ball pythons fans from Russia.
There are hardly 10 people in our country who really breed ball pythons, especially 2-3 gene combos, so we've made a community http://vk.com/regiusbreeders to share info, experience etc.

Will be great if somebody here is eager to answer our questions & give some advice.

So here is some for the beginning

1. We've heard, that about 30% of BP males & females can grow infertile. Is it really so? Is there any chances to prevent it or it's just genetics? How and when to know for sure whether BP is fertile or not?

2. There also an information that buying adult females is throwing money away, cause there is no guarantee, that they will be breeders. The only way to get a good breeding female - to grow her by your own. But there also some secrets in it... Like "don't overfeed her" (I wonder how can that be possible with BP), "don't touch her too often"... Is it true? And if so, what other "secrets" about growing good breeding female should the beginner know?

3. Is it necessary to cold BP before breeding season? Yes/no - why?

4. Should BP breeder worry if his young 150-300 gr males and females refuse to eat more then for a month? How do you cope with hunger-strikes of your baby BP?

5. I have an adult BP female who refuses to eat about 3-4 month. She has lost 70-100 gr for this period actively copulating with male. Over all She is a mice eater. Should I worry about her?

And wanna just to show you my two newcomers from Mike Wilbanks

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aibre.../33135_600.jpg

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aibre.../32551_600.jpg

whoa, noone responded yet :)

i cannot answer all the questions, but lets see.

question 1: i dont think 30% is right. i think almost all BPs can and will breed. some may be good breeders, some not so good. meaning some males lock up withanything and everything, while other males are a bit shy. and some females will give you 4 huge eggs and 2 slugs, meaning only 4 hatchlings, while others give you 8 good small eggs, meaning 8 hatchlings. BPs that dont breed at all are really rare.

question 2 is a bit too broad, in that you can answer it with a book or by linking dozens of threads in this forum. i can clear up some basic things: feeding them A LOT is important for breeding, as is weight gain. they often go off food while breeding, so they need reserves for that, and a female that produces 800 grams of eggs will obviously have a 800 gram weight drop. buying hatchlings is better, because breeders tend to sell the adults that are not performing as good as other adults are. it depends a lot on the reasons why the adult is being sold. this article covers a lot of ground: http://ballpythonbreeder.com/2009/12...ples-problems/

question 3: no. in their natural range temperatures are quite constant around the year, and most BP breeders also keep the temperatures constant and produce throughout the year.

question 4: hunger strikes happen all the time, 1 month is no reason to worry. many threads on this forum are about this topic, and new threads about hunger strikes get posted all the time.

question 5: another hunger strike ^^ i dont know, weight loss isnt good, but then, even 3-4 months is not dangerous, often they go off feed during breeding. how heavy is she?