First of many questions

Ok, some of my females are almost of breeding size... Now it is time to do months of reading to get ready for my first attempts.

First question I have is, what is the standard practice when you want one male to breed with a few different females? In a particular breeding season, how many different females can a male be bred to, and what is the procedure to do it?

Also, is there a general timeline somewhere of what most people do when starting to breed (time of year, temps, how long to do what ect.)

Thanks!

Bump???

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Originally Posted by mcavana

First question I have is, what is the standard practice when you want one male to breed with a few different females? In a particular breeding season, how many different females can a male be bred to, and what is the procedure to do it?

Also, is there a general timeline somewhere of what most people do when starting to breed (time of year, temps, how long to do what ect.)

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Well.... Standard practice is to put the male in with the females one at a time for a certain amount of time (3-7 days) and move the male on to another, with breaks in between.

Male can breed to as many females as necessary given his health is in order and the time is given for him to recover.

So...

3-7 days in, 3-7 days out. NEXT!!

And again.

Starting of the breeding season is November to December (depending) and end is usually March-April.

It all really depends on the snakes...

This works too

http://www.ballpythons.ca/gallery/breeding.html

Mike, here's a couple of "breeding calendars" that I like to keep handy.

http://www.8ballpythons.com/journal/...ngcalendar.htm

http://www.ballpython.ca/gallery/breeding.html

As far as what we did this year with Riordan, we had a routine of putting him in with a female for 3 days then out for 4 days to rest and feed if either of them wanted to. Then back in with another female on his list for 3, out for 4 and so on. Since it was his first breeding rotations we didn't want to stress him out unduly and he did fine, losing very little weight (he was I think 880 grams going into last fall).

Thanks for the 8 ball link! Adam pretty much answers my question here:

"Starting the first of the month, I begin placing males into females cages. I normally like to pair one male with up to five girls. He spends two days in a cage and then moves onto the next one. On feeding day, I separate him from his females (unless he's locked up) and attempt to feed him. Whether he eats or not, I give him two days off and then continue rotating him through females. (If the male is locked up on his first day with the female, I'll move him on to the next girl as soon as he separates). I record all observed copulations on each snakes record card" Quote from Adam at 8ball.

So if I am reading this correctly, he breeds his males for 5 days, then feeds and gives 2 days off. rotating females every 2 days.... up to 5 females.

Sweet! back to reading...

What it comes down to is the condition of the male. I know a guy breeding lessers that has one male and 15 females.

This year I rotated each male through two females (and each female was paired with two separate males).

Week in with female number one... out in 48 hours if there were no sexy times happening.

Same time next week, in with the second female, same as above...

Week three, rest and patrol the enclosure endlessly looking for more females.

I played it pretty safe as the females and males were all in their first year (as was I).

Bruce