1st year attempting to be a ball python breeder.

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a great week.

In the past few years I've been able to slowly but surely pull my collection of ball pythons together in hopes to start breeding them as soon as the males and females are ready. Well this breeding season is my first planned year! (Finally, it felt like forever waiting on my females to get old and large enough to breed).
Unfortunately I will only have 2 females and 2 males (only planned to use one of the males) that are "ready" to go this season and more to come next year.
For this year: 1 "normal" reduced pattern female that is well over 3000 grams and a female pastel HET genetic stripe that's in the 1500 gram range (hatched 2011). The male (900 grams) I planned on pairing up with both females was sold as a spider HET genetic stripe but he looks exactly like a motley bee (spider genetic stripe).
...To the point: on October 1st I set my thermostat to drop the night time temperature. Oct 14th I started introducing the male to both females. 3-4 days with 1 female 3 day break and offered food then 3-4 days with the 2nd female. I know it's still early in the season but I haven't seen my male lock with either of the females. I'll find the male coiled up with the female wrapped around him but that's it...
I have used a shed from my 2nd male (typical normal bp that I got as my 1st pet) as well as his sperm plugs applied to the females backs and neither seem to be helping.
My average humidity/ temps are around 60% and 81°/92°f (night time drops to a hot spot around 83°f).
Like I said, I know it's still early but what else can I do??? I've been looking forward to my very first bp hatchling forever and it would suck to wait another year if there was something i could now. I'm looking forward to getting a pastel spider genetic stripe but at this point I'd be happy with normals. Haha.
Please help! I've done a lot of research before turning to posting a forum here as I'll probably get countless ways to get the same job done.
One last factor that I've been thinking about for years: I live close to 7000ft above sea level... could high altitude effect their performance, if so, any thoughts and/or advice? I couldn't find any info on altitude so im assuming it won't have any ill effect on breeding. I know of breeders in Denver, CO and they are just below 7000ft.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've really enjoyed being a part B-P.net and sharing my knowledge with others.

Take care everyone and their legless pets! [emoji216]

Hello,

First of all you're on the right track. This is gonna be my 5th season and I did a lot of research for the 2 years before breeding. I asked a lot of questions, watched videos and came up with my game plan. The first season, I bred 5 females with 2 males and got 4 clutches. This past season, 16 clutches of 18 19 pairings. You're following the main schedule that I do as well, 3 in 4 out. Just gotta be patient. It is early, I just started pairing and have only seen a couple myself. I have a couple males that I rarely catch locking but do get clutches every season. So that's a possibility. This is your first season, as it is for your males. Sometimes they take a little while to figure it out. Some tricks you could try is to take the shed skins from your other male and place it in with the paired snakes. Also, If you know how to pop the males and check for plugs, take the plugs from the male you're not using and rub the plugs on the back of the females. These seem to spark a little competition with the other male. Mainly be patient and try not to disturb the pairs too much. Take a peak and leave them alone. Good luck and keep us posted.

Mike

One thing that I have heard of to get males "excited" is putting them with another male in the same closed off area for about 5-10 minutes. Also, I don't know if it rains much where you are, but here in Oregon it sure does and that seems to be helping with copulation for my snakes. However, mine are also both proven so they know what they're doing.

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Originally Posted by Sammiebob

One thing that I have heard of to get males "excited" is putting them with another male in the same closed off area for about 5-10 minutes. Also, I don't know if it rains much where you are, but here in Oregon it sure does and that seems to be helping with copulation for my snakes. However, mine are also both proven so they know what they're doing.

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I wouldn't suggest putting two males together as it does tend to set up competition, however it could result in the male you want to breed being dominated or stressed by the other one you introduced as competition. This could have a negative result on your breeding plans. Better to stick with the scents such as sheds and sperm plugs, over the actual snakes. Your advice about rain is good. BP's tend to respond favorably to low pressure systems(stormy weather) for breeding.

It also depends on your male and female so you may just have to wait them out. If both the male and female are both virgins it may take them a while to get used to each other. The female may be being unreceptive to the males advances, or the male just may not really know what he's doing yet since it's his first time. So you may just have to give them time [emoji4] but I definitely agree with this comment ^^^ wait until a storm and pair them up, a lot of people have had success with that.