first time breeder questions

My snakes are almost ready for their first breeding season and I have a few dumb questions for the more experienced breeders.

1) How do I know for sure my females are ready? My biggest girl is almost 1500g and will be 3 this summer.

2) Is there some good online step by step guides anyone can recomend?

3) If she is ready now, should I start or wait till breeding season?

4) Is it better to put the female in the males cage, vise versa, or both in a neutral cage?

5) When lowering temps do I lower so my temp prob in the cage reads the appropriate temp or do just set my thermostat to the appropriate temp. I use a rack set up and my cage temp always seems to be a few degrees cooler than what I set my thermostat temp to.

6) Any other tips or advice is welcome, thanks!

First off your thermostat probe is on the heat tape it sounds like so that could be why it is just a few degrees off. Secondly, I would set the thermostat so the temps in the tubs are correct. :gj:

As for a step by step guide, check out Markus Jayne's site: http://www.ballpython.ca/gallery/breeding.html

They have everything you will ever need to know about breeding. :gj:

I would wait til breeding season if its your first time. Good Luck this fall.

I have never bred yet but have watched alot if Ralph Davis videos and he seems to just introduce tha males into the females tubs. Here is a link I had someone give me about breeding and it is like a timeline of what do do when and what temps they use. As for if you should wait or try now, I have no idea but would like to see what someone else says. Like I said I have never bred before so I am just going off of what I have read and watched but if I am wrong someone will let you know for sure! I hope you get all the answers you need!!
http://www.8ballpythons.com/journal/...ngcalendar.htm