Ready to breed?

I have 3 beautiful female normals that I plan to breed with my pastel male. My male is about a year old and my last female I had acquired into my collection (FREE) is about a year and a half old and is a little over three feet long. Now I am told the magic number is 1200grams weight to start breeding... Given its size and length if I get it weighed and it does infact weigh 1200grams or more would it be possible to start breeding this season? This is my only female closest to breeding size.

Also, any recommendations on a scale that is accurate for weighing my snakes?

I'd recommend getting them all accurately sexed before moving on with any breeding attempts ;)

I've had them all probed.

From everyone I've talked to that has bred balls pythons, the general concensus is that its better to wait until the girls are at very least 1500 grams.

If I were you, I'd give them all another year. At 1200 grams, you could have her at well over 2000 grams by next year, which will provide a much better chance at getting more, viable eggs rather than rolling the dice on slim odds with an underweight female.

Adam has some good thoughts on weights of breeding girls...maybe he'll chime in...but then again, he don't know 100!

I've got a 1200g female that I feel is too small to breed. Some say 1000g is the magic number, and others say don't do it till she hits at least 1500g...I am going to stick with 1500g+

Breeding is not something you want to jump into. If your biggest girl is 1200 grams, then IMO you should wait till next year to fatten her up a bit more.

Besides her size, a year and a half seems VERY young to be starting out. That might be ok for a male, but females need a lot more time to mature, even if they did put on weight fast.

thank you for the helpful pointers!

Yeah, I can't wait I am just so excited. Hopefully she's at that 1500grams or more. I'm not sure though. I'm going to get her weighed to find out sometime very soon...However next year my second largest should be ready as well so either way next year I should definetly have a better chance at hatching some balls.

Any reccomendation on an accurate scale?

Do you think there could be some seriouse health problems that could occur if she was to be bred even if she is at the weight and size? ( age related, being young and all)

I'm not planning on breeding her this year. Just trying to find out the possibility of it. Next year is when i plan to get it crackin!

They tend to slug out (drop bad, unfertilized eggs) when they are on the thin side. Breeding is very taxing on their system and fat reserves, and many don't feed during breeding season, so your 1200gram girl now could be 1000-1100 when it comes time to actually ovulate and develop eggs. Just keep your temps up over the winter and feed the crap out of her, getting ready for next year. It will be here before you know it.

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Originally Posted by djslurp1200

Any reccomendation on an accurate scale?

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Ebay Digiweigh

http://cgi.ebay.com/52-DIGITAL-POSTA...QQcmdZViewItem

Weighs up to 52lbs, weighs in grams or lbs
22 bucks plus 13 S&H....great price and perfect for ball pythons...

Ya, thats what i'm thinkin...Feeding the crap out of it. without them getting obese though. I want my snakes to be AS HEALTHY as possible. Once again though I do want to get it weighed. It doesn't look underweight but I am of course curiouse.

Anyways, on the scale question again... Does anybody here recommend a particular scale for weighing their snakes? Maybe something
wal-mart or target would carry?

Any Info would help. I need one now and I will later on once i do hatch babies so i can monitor the weight...

WalMart does carry a limited range of digital scales...check the kitchen supply aisles.

For our females we are going with this rule of thumb....minimum 1,500 grams with that being at least 500 grams per linear foot....so a 4 foot female would actually need to be at minimum 2,000 grams before we would put her with our male. We're really being very cautious with our precious females and feel that an extra year of growth on a potential breeder female is never a wasted effort over the long term.

We have 3 females this year ready for breeding going by the above and one that is just on the edge, so she'll likely be passed this year rather than chance her wellbeing.

How much should I expect to pay for the scale?

thank you for the information.

Now say my female is at 1500g's and i was to attempt the breeding. Just drop the temp's at the recommended temp's for breeding wait a few weeks and then put him in with her? and should i leave him with her for how long ? until they start lockin up? week or two at a time? just curiouse...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by djslurp1200

Now say my female is at 1500g's and i was to attempt the breeding. Just drop the temp's at the recommended temp's for breeding wait a few weeks and then put him in with her? and should i leave him with her for how long ? until they start lockin up? week or two at a time? just curiouse...

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If you're really going to be serious about this, my personal suggestion would be to pick up a good book or video on ball python breeding ... it will answer all of your questions and provide you with information that you don't yet have the experience to inquire about ...

Here are some books that I like ...

http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Python-Ma...e=UTF8&s=books

http://www.newenglandreptile.com/book.html

http://www.vpi.com/KeeperShop/Python...fTheWorld2.htm

And some videos ...

http://www.vpi.com/KeeperShop/BallVi...allVideoAd.htm

http://www.ballpython.com/page.php?topic=bpbreeding

Hope this helps.

-adam

Thank you VERY MUCH adam. I appreciate your response.