Uh-oh...Ball Pythons up to no good...

Okay....I sort of thought that this was probably something that should not have happened as Trinity is only about a little over a year old and as far as her weight goes I am not sure how many grams she is.I really hate to sound like a beginner but I am - Trinity is nearly four feet long and is very heavy bodied...I would have to get a metric scale to ascertain her weight.

I would have seperated the two but I was hesitant to interfere.I did not want to injure either snake.Please forgive my naivete but I am a total neonate when it comes to BREEDING these animals - it is actually rather scary to be honest.I don't want to unitentionally hurt any of my animals.

The copulation appeared to last several hours.

EyeLashViper

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Originally Posted by KLG

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Originally Posted by Naära

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Originally Posted by KLG

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Originally Posted by Naära

That's great to see! How long were they copulating? BP are common to do "it" also for fun! Only after a long copulation (sometimes over 24 hours) the female can get gravid.

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That is untrue - ball pythons do not have to copulate for extended periods of time to become gravid, it just increases the chances that the female will become gravid. I've had a female breed a male ONCE all season & still give me a great clutch of eggs.

K

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How long were they hooked up during that copulation? I always understood that a copulation of only a few minutes has hardly no chance of getting the female gravid.

I don't mean that they have to copulate mutiple times. I learnt (from reading and breeders) that the copulation itself should take some time. Sometimes they are even hooked up for over 24 hours.

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Right. I'm aware that females don't have to copulate multiple times to become gravid. I'm simply saying that the statement of "Only after a long copulation (sometimes over 24 hours) the female can get gravid" is very confining, considering the surprises that snakes are capable of pulling. I've seen females of several species (balls included) breed once in a season, sometimes for short periods of time, i.e. 10 minutes to an hour, and still become gravid. Am I saying that this is a rule rather than an exception? No. Female snakes are much more likely to become gravid over a period of time involving multiple copulations, however, I also feel that it is closed-minded to put things like breeding in terms of "only." There are very few absolutes when it comes to breedings snakes - these animals are very good at resetting the parameters of what we think we know.

Just my $.02

K

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Thanks for clearing that out!