Ready to get things underway

I have gotten all my problem feeders to eat and both my female and male (the only two I'm breeding this season) are up to weight. (Female is around 1900. Male is around 580-600). I just fed them yesterday.

So how to best go about this. I want to cool them, but I know you are supposed to do it gradually. Or can you do it all at once? This is my first breeding season and I'm a bit nervous. I will be working on the incubator over the next couple of months. Probably won't put it together till November or December.

So how should I go about cooling? Since the female is in her own rack (The rack has 3 tubs and she occupies only one of them. All the other snakes are in 32qt racks). I was thinking of moving the male to her rack, in the tub below hers so I only have to cool one rack. Since its a bigger tub than he's used to I will give him two hides for him to curl up in.

Im in the same boat you are, :rolleye2: going crazy over it, i would move the male to her rack. Im going to kinda do my own thing been looking at the major breeders websites on there way of breeding, im going to cool them down but not as much as some do. I remeber West coast said that last year he didnt cool at all and still had really good results. So im going to start to drop my temps here in about a month or more. Best of luck

Can you breed successfully without cooling? Even if its still warm, can you pair them as you would even if you are cooling. Few days in, few days out? I know the cooling process gets them in the mood, but I don't have a night temperature drop feature on my thermostat so I would have to go and lower the temperature every night if I was to cool. I keep temps at 92 on the hot side and mid 80's on the ambient side. (temps in the house fluctuate between 73-78 right now). Would tossing in the male now do anything or would they just sit there and ignore each other?

You will never know unless you try, ive thrown males into females tubs just to see what happens, and almost as soon as the females find out the males there i start to see tail wagging ext. So im still going to lower the temps but only about 5 dregrees. So let me know if you run across anything that helps. Best of luck

I may try not cooling and just placing the male in with the female. If I see no action, then I'll cool.

Since I am new at this myself I can only tell you what I did.
I didn't cool at all I tried and due to my rooms RH% I had 2 RI creep up on me and decided not to cool. I started pairing on Thanksgiving Day and didn't see my first lock till Janurary. Could cooling have helped speed things up? Maybe, but it wasn't worth risking a bad RI in a gravid female for me to rush things. I started watching the barometric pressure in my room. When the pressure would drop I would pair them up and BOOM! I was getting locks left and right it was great.

cheers

How would you measure the pressure. I go to weather.com all the time and I can see the current pressure. (right now its at 30.20 with a little arrow pointing ->) Can I use this to measure pressure in my area for breeding purposes or should I get an actual pressure meter...thingy? And what is considered low pressure? We are not supposed to have rain till next Friday.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

How would you measure the pressure. I go to weather.com all the time and I can see the current pressure. (right now its at 30.20 with a little arrow pointing ->) Can I use this to measure pressure in my area for breeding purposes or should I get an actual pressure meter...thingy? And what is considered low pressure? We are not supposed to have rain till next Friday.

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I just got me one of those wall Barometers it has an average high and low area I watched for a little while what my average reading in PSI was then when I saw it dropping I'd pair up..Oh and I would mist the tubs of paired animals. I'd say get you a barometer. The pressure in your room may be vastly different than where weather.com's testing station is.

:gj:

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

I just got me one of those wall Barometers it has an average high and low area I watched for a little while what my average reading in PSI was then when I saw it dropping I'd pair up..Oh and I would mist the tubs of paired animals. I'd say get you a barometer. The pressure in your room may be vastly different than where weather.com's testing station is.

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Thank you frog man that helps alot!!!! :gj::gj::gj::gj::D:banana::banana:

Where can you get a barometer? Can you get them at a place like Southern States or Walmart?

I have no idea ill go to wallmart today and find out haha

I got mine on-line.

Right now, I live at 4000' above sea level and so I wanted one that was calibrated for high altitude (3000' to 7000' above sea level).

At the ranch I got one that was calibrated for low altitude given that it is only 1900' above sea level out there.

Here's the link: http://www.sciencecompany.com/barometric/barometer.htm

Good luck fellas on your breeding season. I slowly cool mine but I start on Oct 15 th or so.I just cut the heat tape off for 2 hours and slowly increase the amount of time it is off over the next few months. During the day the temps are normal I feel that is what keeps the RI away. Plus I have a heater that is set on at thermostat to 78-80 so ambients temps do not drop to low. Again good luck.

Any place that sell thermometers should have barometers, sometimes they come in a set of both or 3 with humidity.
The rooms naturally cool in the winter anyway.

2 years ago I cooled and last year I didnt and got pretty much the same results.

You can just wait for rain (which is low pressure) and pair them then, this is what they do in the wild, breed during the rainy season.

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

Any place that sell thermometers should have barometers, sometimes they come in a set of both or 3 with humidity.
The rooms naturally cool in the winter anyway.

2 years ago I cooled and last year I didnt and got pretty much the same results.

You can just wait for rain (which is low pressure) and pair them then, this is what they do in the wild, breed during the rainy season.

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Thankx man that helps alot.

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

You can just wait for rain (which is low pressure) and pair them then, this is what they do in the wild, breed during the rainy season.

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Hmmmm, wonder if the same hold true for snow since that's what we're gonna start seeing a lot of in a month or two :D

Rain, snow, same thing. Both bring low pressure. If you live near an airport you can call their automated weather station toll free anytime to get the current barometric pressure in your area.

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Originally Posted by Jenn

Rain, snow, same thing. Both bring low pressure. If you live near an airport you can call their automated weather station toll free anytime to get the current barometric pressure in your area.

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Cool good to know. I'm about 15 mins from an airport so I'll have to check that out. I'm in the same kind of bind as the OP, I've only got one male and one female that are breeding size and only one rack and I don't want everyone to go off feed if I try to brumate just the two of them since I still have 4 other BPs that I'm getting up to size for next year *fingers crossed*

We didn't cool last breeding season. Like others have said, we just watched for incoming weather fronts (rain, snow, etc.) and barometric pressure drops. Seemed to do the job pretty well and we got 3 nice clutches out of the pairings - no RI's in the breeders. :)

Since we are on this toppic of breeding, ill move it to eggs where does everyone get there hatchrite or whatever its called from???

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Originally Posted by Drew87

Since we are on this toppic of breeding, ill move it to eggs where does everyone get there hatchrite or whatever its called from???

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I use vermiculite and I get it from my local lawn and garden center. They sale like 10lbs dry for 15.00.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

I use vermiculite and I get it from my local lawn and garden center. They sale like 10lbs dry for 15.00.

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Can you just use that alone or do you have to mix it with something else other then water?

Here ya go Drew: http://www.hatchrite.com/retailers.html

I'll just stick to verm/pearlite mix though!

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Originally Posted by Drew87

Can you just use that alone or do you have to mix it with something else other then water?

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I just mix it with warm water and its good to go.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

I just mix it with warm water and its good to go.

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Thank you frog man :gj::bow:

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Originally Posted by starmom

Here ya go Drew: http://www.hatchrite.com/retailers.html

I'll just stick to verm/pearlite mix though!

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Hey thats great thank you, :rockon:

Thanks for all the information everyone! I'm on the lookout for a barometer. I'll go to Walmart and Southern States today and see what I can find.

Now, if you don't cool, will the snakes still go off feed? I know that when you cool the females tend to stop eating. Does this still apply even if you don't cool?

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

Thanks for all the information everyone! I'm on the lookout for a barometer. I'll go to Walmart and Southern States today and see what I can find.

Now, if you don't cool, will the snakes still go off feed? I know that when you cool the females tend to stop eating. Does this still apply even if you don't cool?

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Im pretty sure that when they start breeding they go off food, i know males do for sure becuase they are all excited about the girls. And im pretty sure the females are the same way more worried about breeding then eating

Well I'm going to have to get me a barometer soon. :) I'm so excited. Its my first season and I'm practically jumping up and down. I know there is only a chance I'll get eggs. I might not get any this season.

The female is a normal. The male is 100% het for pied. So I'll get 50% poss. het pieds if I get any babies. I'll keep all females and find homes for the males. :) Then breed the females back to the male in about 2-3 years.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

Well I'm going to have to get me a barometer soon. :) I'm so excited. Its my first season and I'm practically jumping up and down. I know there is only a chance I'll get eggs. I might not get any this season.

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I know the feeling man! This is gonna be my first season breeding BPs and I can't wait to see what we can get! I think it's just going to be my male pastel and normal female that'll be going but she's a proven breeder so we shouldn't have any real issues. I just have to make sure I do everything right and pray for some little pastels :please:

Thanks for all the info everyone, even though I'm not the OP I've learned a lot from this thread! It's great!

I didn't know that about the barometric pressure.. Thanks Ed for the idea.. I'm going to get one of those barometers. So for the people that don't cool, the hotspot and the ambient all stay the same the whole season?? I'm thinking of not cooling my snakes but want to know exactly how you guys do it.. I've seen alot of breeding recipes with the specifics of how to cool but none with the non-cooling method.. I just want to be sure I'm going about it right.. I know it's probably really simple but being my first season I want to get it right.. LOL

Alan

What we did this past season was just throw the male into the female's tub for 3 days, then take him back out. No cooling. Most times they were locked up by the end of the first day. If a copulation was observed, they were removed after the lock was released instead of waiting the full 3 days. Granted, we were only breeding two pairs of snakes, but we did end up with clutches from both pairs.

I didn't cool, and I paired when weather fronts were coming in. Females ate until they ovualted, and my males ate pretty well as well. I used Hatchrite for my incubation substrate. My temps never changed year round. I only bred three females, but all three succesfully laid eggs and I had 100% hatch rate.

You can use vermiculite, right? The garden store up the street sells it really cheap.

I am not dropping room temps this season. The room stays at 84 or so. The males are on heat 24/7. In October I'll start turning off the heat tape on the female tubs at night. I use a light timer to reduce the amount of "daylight". There are many things that work. Do what works for you. I personally will never let my room drop below 80 degrees. Too much risk for RI for my comfort.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

You can use vermiculite, right? The garden store up the street sells it really cheap.

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We used vermiculite with a piece of egg crate on top. Keeps the eggs nice and dry, don't have to worry about adding too much water and keeps the humidity nice and high. Had zero traces of mold. :gj: