Breeding Questions

This upcoming season will be my first breeding ball pythons. (or breeding any snakes, really) All of my snakes are in racks, so dropping temps in the tubs should not be too hard. One of my questions was...Is cooling necessary? Are there benefits to doing it? Not doing it? Has anyone successfully bred ball pythons without cooling?

Also, I have a mini fridge I'm going to make an incubator out of. If I get a picture of it, is there anyway anyone can tell me how to turn it into an incubator. Currently it is still being used as a fridge, but I hope to have it turned into an incubator by December.

This year was my first year. I had good odds getting girls to go for me. 100% of course I only bred two girls. :D I didn't cool at all I just timed my pairings with low pressure systems that came through and *Poof* breeding. sorry I can say for sure whether cooling helps hurst or what.

I have had success. I have not "cooled" my snakes. I have read during my research that some breeders have experienced R.Is and it's thought to be a direct result of cooling.

What I have done is drop the overall temps in the rooms that they have been housed in at various times. The temps at their hot spot remains the same, but the cooler part gets cooler so they have a wider range of temps. 90 hot spot..88 around the middle and cooler than that in the front.

I can actually breed whenever I see the females cooling around their dishes in the front and feel/see follicles with the ultrasound.

When breeding to low pressure systems, do you just constantly check the weather and when you see one coming your way, pop the male in with a female?

Temps stay around 92 on the hot side, mid 80's on the cool side, depending on the temperature of the room. Now that we have roommates, they want the apartment to be cooler since their ferrets like cooler temps (our ferrets could care less about temperature). So temps in the apartment are around 71-74 most of the time.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

When breeding to low pressure systems, do you just constantly check the weather and when you see one coming your way, pop the male in with a female?

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Yea I just watch the weather every morning and evening and if I see that a low pressure system is coming in during the night. Pop in goes the male. He does his thing and when hes done out he comes till the next low pressure come through. During the fall and spring here in Misssissippi we have like one a week so it worked out good this last year.

Not sure how that will work in Virginia. I want to do all I can to have a good first season. I'm only breeding one female, and I know that even when you are breeding many females, not all of them take, so breeding just one, I only have one shot.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

This year was my first year. I had good odds getting girls to go for me. 100% of course I only bred two girls. :D I didn't cool at all I just timed my pairings with low pressure systems that came through and *Poof* breeding. sorry I can say for sure whether cooling helps hurst or what.

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That's how I'm going to give it a go my first time. It naturally gets cool in the winter in my basement so my cool side dips into the 78-80 degree range. Seemed like it rained a lot this year in NY, I hope for the same next year.

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Originally Posted by Spaniard

That's how I'm going to give it a go my first time. It naturally gets cool in the winter in my basement so my cool side dips into the 78-80 degree range. Seemed like it rained a lot this year in NY, I hope for the same next year.

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Doesn't even have to rain I'm going to invest in a Barometer this year so I can track the number of lock compared to the pressure in my room. :D

Now here's an idea Ed, why not track the BMeter readings daily, so if there is a trend for when the pressure is the lowest during the season... say like Oct-Nov, it would make sense for more pairings to happen then.... right?

Wow this is a really interesting conversation!

Now that I'm out of college, and am ready to focus primarily on my breeding this year, I was wondering about how thrilled I was with a cooling cycle, exactly because of R.I.'s. I was thinking of trying a low-pressure breeding system, and I'm really interested to see what others have to say about this! It could be a revolution in ball python breeding! LOL :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Now here's an idea Ed, why not track the BMeter readings daily, so if there is a trend for when the pressure is the lowest during the season... say like Oct-Nov, it would make sense for more pairings to happen then.... right?

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Bingo that way I can learn when is the best time to breed based on my location. :D

Barometer is the way to go... Just like in bass fishing, when the barometer drops they turn on! They also start spawning around full moons in may...

Might want to do the full moon thing in nov...

Some thoughts...

So when looking at a weather report, how do you determine whether a low pressure system is coming in? I use the internet and just look at the temperature and whether it is going to rain or not. We are supposed to get storms today, so I'm guessing that is a low pressure system, yes?

Current Pressure: 29.96 ->

Thats what the weather channel says online for my area. Would this be considered low pressure? Just trying to get the hang of this in case I want to try it for my first season.

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Originally Posted by JasonG

Barometer is the way to go... Just like in bass fishing, when the barometer drops they turn on! They also start spawning around full moons in may...

Might want to do the full moon thing in nov...

Some thoughts...

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Farmers almanac. :D my best friend for fishing. :D

This is a link for turning a freezer into an incubator, I hope u have the best of luck with your breeding

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Doesn't even have to rain I'm going to invest in a Barometer this year so I can track the number of lock compared to the pressure in my room. :D

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I think the pitter patter of rain drops helps get them in the mood :P

You're absolutely right though, time to start a spreadsheet at work on barometric pressures here in NY.