Just some cool statistics for those as Anal as me!

I promised myself at the beginning of this season that I would post the results of our breeding season for all of the great members on this board once we were done hatching. Since our last ball python hatched this morning, I have put all of the numbers together, and here they are.
These numbers are based on the 06/07 breeding season:

Total females in our breeding program: 40

Total females that copulated at least once: 35

Total females to lay eggs: 21

Total Slugs: 4

Total infertile eggs: 4

Total eggs that went bad during incubation: 12

Total good eggs that went full term: 118

Total hatchlings: 119 (1 set of twins born this year)

Total hatchlings that died: 1 (hatched from boob egg at light weight, and was a hard belly. She ate one meal and died)

Final Sex Ratio: 55.64

Lightest Hatchling: 23.0 grams (one of the twins)

Heaviest Hatchling: 87.6 gram ( a Het Albino from a girl that always lays big eggs)

Total Hatchling Weight: 6911.3 grams (we hatched 15.36 pounds of snakes)

Average Hatchling Weight: 60.1 grams

Just thought this might be some fun numbers for everyone to look at.

Thanks for looking, and I hope this may help someone's curiosity,

Now you need to past pictures of all the hatchlings, and get ready to pair your snakes once more in months to come!:D thanks for that! You had really gfood luck this years, here is to next year also!

Wow! Those are some pretty comprehensive statistics.

Very interesting indeed!

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Originally Posted by Icatsme

Wow! Those are some pretty comprehensive statistics.

Very interesting indeed!

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Thanks, it took a little bit of time to compile it all in one place, but it was neat to look at myself. Also, it takes a good bit of record keeping to be able to do it accurately. Fortunately, I have always been anal when it comes to numbers.

Tim, those are some valuable stats.... it gives people an idea of what to expect if all goes well.... I hear some people (Not people on this forum) talk about all these things they are going to produce as though all copulations will result in eggs and perfect hatchlings.

In a round about way (Based on your stats alone) it's safe to say 2 out of 3 will become gravid.

My personal goal this year is a 50% success rate on those that are observed breeding.... if that happens.... I'll be happy!

For a bp breeding novice like myself, those are great stats to look that. Thank you for the info :)

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Originally Posted by Sputnik

Tim, those are some valuable stats.... it gives people an idea of what to expect if all goes well.... I hear some people (Not people on this forum) talk about all these things they are going to produce as though all copulations will result in eggs and perfect hatchlings.

In a round about way (Based on your stats alone) it's safe to say 2 out of 3 will become gravid.

My personal goal this year is a 50% success rate on those that are observed breeding.... if that happens.... I'll be happy!

For a bp breeding novice like myself, those are great stats to look that. Thank you for the info :)

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Scott, thanks for the thanks (if that makes sense).
I personally go for a %50 percent clutch rate. That is what I am basing next years results on. I fthey go higher, that is great, but if they follow the statistics, I can't complain. I am glad I was able to help at least one person.

Excellent stats Tim. I love that kind of stuff and it's a great breeding overview for you to have and us to learn from. Thanks!

i had absolutely no idea... thank you so much for that!!! i just raised my IQ at least 10 points...

you rock!

15 lbs of snake, thats pretty cool! Nice stats!

Thanks for sharing these...I never knew the ratio of breed to actually laying. I am shocked it is only around half. This really helps understand why certain morphs stay so expensive...not only are you dealing with the genetic odds but also the odds that the pairing will even take. Makes you go hmmmm.

Thanks for all of the thanks. I am glad that anyone could atleast get some foresight or any kind of knowledge from this post.

Tim,

How many female you breed with one male? I know it also depends on the morph you want to produce. Maybe you can tell me avarage ratio of your male:female breeding.

50% success rate of the female that copulate and lay egg will show some people that it's not that easy breeding ball python. It doesn't put me back but it makes me realize that I must work harder to be success in breeding them. Thank you very much for your post Tim.

Im lucky, I have a 100% lay rate. 1/1!!! :sunny:

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Originally Posted by Petboy15

Im lucky, I have a 100% lay rate. 1/1!!! :sunny:

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Sweet odds Randy. I hope you can maintain that percentage for years to come. You did better than us in our first season. We went 0/4 our first year.

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Originally Posted by hgrub

Tim,

How many female you breed with one male? I know it also depends on the morph you want to produce. Maybe you can tell me avarage ratio of your male:female breeding.

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T,
It really depends on the project. However I will say that we do not put a male with any more than 5 females. This year will be interesting, as I do have a couple males that may get 6 females this year, but I know they are strong breeders as I have been able to observe them over the years. Some of our projects may only have the male breeding his one designated female (example would be my double het for True Ghost animals). Hope that helps a little.

Yep we were 0 for 3 last breeding season but this year we're better prepared I hope and better educated due to all you wonderful, experienced breeders.

You are a very good breeder! All those records are simply amazing.

My stats have no where to go but down. I also had a 100% hatch rate for my single clutch this year.

Thank you for sharing those numbers Tim. I'm sure it will give me comfort and reassurance in the upcoming years.

This is some awesome information, Tim!

I would LOVE to put together a study/article of just such statistics. If there are any breeders who would like to work with me on this, shoot me a PM. :D

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Originally Posted by JLC

This is some awesome information, Tim!

I would LOVE to put together a study/article of just such statistics. If there are any breeders who would like to work with me on this, shoot me a PM. :D

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Judy,
Let me know what you are looking for, as I keep some pretty good records on all sorts of stuff. For a while when we first got our snakes I even weighed their waste, as I was curious as to how much they retained from meals they ate.

lol. I remember reading that on year Ralph had 69 out of 72 females lay! Thats crazy. But then again, that's Ralph...

That's awesome Tim. You should do this every year so you (and us) can compare how much your business grows!

Thanks J.R. I actually keep records like that every year, and still have the numbers for 2006. So, I am sure that we will have them again next year. I need to get into record keeping gear, as the next breeding season is around the corner. I can't believe it's already here, as our last hatchling just came out. I may very well be trying to get a hatchling to take it's first meal when we get our first copulation. WOW, how time flies.

This was pretty quick of an "off season". I dont mind, breeding season is fun!

Good stats Tim. I try to keep some sort of records. Not as detailed as yours. Here are a few stats from my second year of breeding ball pythons.
26 breedable females
21 total clutches
Largest clutch 13 eggs
smallest 1 egg 7 slugs the one egg went bad (poss het clown)
Larget baby 92 grams from a het pied to a poss het pied that produced a pied
1 set of deformed twins
1 severely kinked baby
Those numbers are accurate.
These are approximate sorry water bowl got spill on my notes.
118 eggs
11 slugs
4 died during incubation
3 died from not eating
Most of my cluthes were poss hets (pieds,ghosts,clowns,albinos)
Did hatch a pied an albino 2 super pastels

This coming season will not be as good. Females are a little light. I should have more slugs this season due to that. Plus the 60 + hour work weeks coming up will not help things. Gotta get the pet store open ASAP.
Good luck to everyone this season. Great numbers time. I wish i kept better records. I mainly worry about who the parents are and who ate.

Great numbers Thomas. It looks as if our seasons were very similar, except that your bred to lay ratio was much better than mine.

I have always loved numbers, and will probably post something similar to this every year.

Did you post your stats last year, if not I'd love to see them? I find the numbers interesting too! I love making those kind of comparisons. I will be posting my stats next year (hopefully, right now I'm trying to figure out what to do breeding wise after my pastel dying) But so Far I keep stats on all of my snakes, how well they eat (time wise) as well as how often they shed and so on.

Great post Tim! It is so fun to find someone as anal as I am when it comes to numbers and our breedings. Following your order, here are our stats:


Total females breeding this year (some are held back each year even though they may be up to size): 26

Total females that copulated at least once: 25

Total females to lay eggs: 18

Total Slugs: 5

Total infertile eggs: 0

Total eggs that went bad during incubation: 9

Total good eggs that went full term: 110

Total hatchlings: 110

Total hatchlings that died: 0

Final Sex Ratio: 68.42

Lightest Hatchling: 35 grams

Heaviest Hatchling: 95 grams

Average Hatchling Weight: 67 grams

Started cooling in October and pairings in November

Stopped pairings in April

First clutch on April 2

Last clutch on September 5

Longest time between POS and egg laying 35 days

Shortest time between POS and egg laying 25 days

Most locks observed between male and female that didn't result in eggs 13

Fewest locks observed between male and female that did result in eggs 4

Number of males that locked but did not reproduce 1 (ghost)

Most prolific male (fathered most # of babies) Super Pastel

We also run most of our males through no more than 5 females with an average of 4 females to every male. We do back up our breedings with several males to a female; always co-dom though so we can be sure of the normal looking babies.

Tim, I'd like to trade sex rations with you! Good luck to everyone with your breedings this year.

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Originally Posted by Alice

Great post Tim! It is so fun to find someone as anal as I am when it comes to numbers and our breedings. Following your order, here are our stats:

Tim, I'd like to trade sex rations with you! Good luck to everyone with your breedings this year.

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Great numbers Alice. I do have the extra data that you posted for our animals as well, but didn't think to post it. This has been a very fun thread, and I wouldn't mind seeing it done every year. I'll try to stay on the ball in case someone forgets.

As for sex ratio, I'm sure we'll trade this year, as you can only carry luck with you so long.

Hopefully in a few years Ill have 40 breeding females. Thats when it gets really fun, huh Tim? :cool:

Im just curious to the # of each morphs you are breeding..Of the 40, how many are pastels, mojaves, albino, normals, etc.

what morph was the twins? and do u ahve any pics of them? how much do u plan on selling them for?

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Originally Posted by FIREball

Im just curious to the # of each morphs you are breeding..Of the 40, how many are pastels, mojaves, albino, normals, etc.

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Of the 40 that I bred this year, 14 were either a visible morph or a definite Het. The remaining were normals with the exception of one Possible Het that did not lay.

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Originally Posted by Het4Something

what morph was the twins? and do u ahve any pics of them? how much do u plan on selling them for?

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The twins hatched from a clutch of Spiders, but they were normals. They are females, and I am not planning on selling them. If I do, it will be quite some time off, as they are only about 5 days old now and very small. It will take some time to get some size on them before I am conmfortable that they are going to do fine.

Here is a link to the pic of the twins:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=53221

So how many visual or het males do you have? Im assuming more than 14 since you have a lot of normals.

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Originally Posted by FIREball

So how many visual or het males do you have? Im assuming more than 14 since you have a lot of normals.

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19 that I can think of right now.

Not bad at all! Im sure in 3 years i will be twice that. I know Ill be holding back 15+ babies this next season.

I held back 52 babies I think it is this season. Lots of poss hets,the albino and the pied.