FRUSTRATED... Answers please

been paring for 2 months.. and no locks.s


I know it is still early... BUT

what am I doing wrong?

daytime temp 89.. nite time temp 82.

male and female definately old enough to take care of business...

Newspaper substrate... should I switch to aspen??? Please submit comments!!!

Mike

Have you tried paiting her up with another male? She may just be picky. Also if you have two males, putting them together to "fight" will spark them bck up to "get the job done". Also another thing that has helped before is to place male in with female when she is in shed or place male in with her when cold front or a storm is brewing.

Have you tried playing a little Sinatra?

are you sure the male is a male and the female is a female...:rolleyes:

Patience.
It is VERY early in the season.
This takes time.
I have found that putting in another male can sometimes help- though I have not ever done the fighting thing.
She might be more receptive when she's in blue. You could also try leaving the fresh shed in there.
Most of all, patience is the key ;)

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Originally Posted by TooManyToys

Have you tried playing a little Sinatra?

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lol! YES!

I am talking about 3 pairings.... 3 boys, 3 girls. And I am 100% certain of the sexes (probed by vet, and I have since got my own probes, and learned how to probe correctly)

Ya you are right it is early...you have PLENTY o time for locks. Seperate your animals for a couple weeks, and the next time you have a male shed, check the shed for spermplugs. Take the spermplugs from the shed and rub them on the back of the female. Make sure you are using the shed from a different male. Then when you introduce your breeder male, he will smell the other male and hopefully get his motor running. I have heard people just throw the whole shed from the other male into the cage with the female and have gotten results. Good Luck Bud! :salute:

2 thoughts on this... Patience...

and your temps dont seem to have much variance between night and day... Why not try 92 day time temp and like 87 at night?

Also maybe you are just missing the locks?

Are your females laying cool?

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Originally Posted by mcavana

lol! YES!

I am talking about 3 pairings.... 3 boys, 3 girls. And I am 100% certain of the sexes (probed by vet, and I have since got my own probes, and learned how to probe correctly)

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I'm read/heard from more than a couple Floridians that their breeding season starts real late. It probably has to do with the temperatures being warmer down there.....

One trick is to wait to pair them until a cool/cold front goes through. The pressure differences seems to get them going....


Good luck!!!

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Originally Posted by mcavana

been paring for 2 months.. and no locks.s


I know it is still early... BUT

what am I doing wrong?

daytime temp 89.. nite time temp 82.

male and female definately old enough to take care of business...

Newspaper substrate... should I switch to aspen??? Please submit comments!!!

Mike

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dont feel bad i havent had even a wink in the tub from what i see and i have 5 males rotating for short visits with my codom/normals and some other morph/morph pairings

I agree with alot of posters....it's early and you might be missing the lock ups.

Keep rotating them through, ESPECIALLY when the female is in shed and when weather fronts move through. You'll get there :)

Hope that helps.

Drop your day temp to 84 and night temp to 77. Also, get a humidifier -- Holmes makes a good one (Home Depot of Lowes) and keep humidity between 65/day and I always turn mine up at night. 73%-75% is about as high as I can get my room. Think JUNGLE:D Good luck. Remember YOU are making weather in your breeding room!:banana:

You are already frustrated after only 2 months and so early in the season

1# because you want them to breed does not mean they will (there is no guarantee that they will breed)
2# it is still early
3# you don’t always see the lock
4# you need to be patient and keep pairing
5# if it does not work this year there is always next year

Breeding those animals should be something fun and enjoyable not something frustrating.

I don't know. It ain't all THAT early. I've seen most of mine locked up at least once now. I was seeing some lock up a couple of months ago. Either they'll go or they won't. A few things to help it along would be to introduce two males together and let them wrestle it out. Pairing up when a low pressure front moves through works wonders too. You can also try misting a bit to increase humidity, I've been told that humid air carries the females scent better. Also introducing your male after the female has shed (leave the shed skin in the tub) adds more aroma to the atmosphere. Popping some sperm plugs out of another male and rubbing them on the back of the female you want to get bred has also worked for me in the past.

Also, how do you know they aren't doing it but are just shy? I've got a male het albino that I've only ever caught breeding once. Yet he's produced 2-4 nice clutches for me every year for the past 5 years (though I have noticed that his females tend to be more grouchy then my other girls, maybe they're just not being satisfied.... :D:D:D:D:D:D) .

If it is thier first year many males will only lock for short periods, most times you will miss it. I would let the ambient temps go down to 77-78 at night that will help get everyone cycling.

I have never battled males. They will breed when they are ready not when you are. I have eggs laid all year round so you just have to follow their lead.

Best of luck and be patient. Graziani said he had over 100 females that should have gone that didnt one year. Its not as simple as put male with female. Take your time, by next summer if nothing has happened then you have a legimate complaint.

I have waited years for a pairing to finally happen, relax it will come.

This is just for information only - and I posted it on another thread about battling males:

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Here we go - from Pythons of the World, Vol 2: Ball Pythons, Barker & Barker, p. 216

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We don't combat our males. Ball python males are not as quick to combat as some other python species. Typically, only very closely matched males that have never before had the chance will combat. We don't ever expose our older, established males directly to each other. In ball pythons and other pythons, it is our observation that some youngsters, having been roundly beaten in combat, may not show any courtship behavior for years.

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Emphasis added by me.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Breeding those animals should be something fun and enjoyable not something frustrating.

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Amen! Save the angst for hatching season! lol :D

Really, enjoy your animals.... At my stage in the hobby, I view breeding as a perk. I would own (and have owned for more than 1/2 my life) reptiles just to keep and admire them. Am I happy when I see a lock? YES! But I also opted to not breed many of my adult females last year because I didn't have the males in my collection that I wanted.
Relax... if it happens, it happens. If not, as stated... there is always next year, and the years after! It will all work out! :)

Who said it's too early? Mine are locking up like crazy.:please: (what I am waiting for is results of those locks).

What I do is wait till I observe the female attempting to "cool" herself by wrapping around her water bowl, or by staying at the cool end of the rack. Her first shed after she starts wrapping, she gets paired with a male (if she's on my breeding schedule).

I have sometimes had to put males that were "first timers" or slow starters with an "established" female first to get them started and it has worked for me.

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Originally Posted by broadude

I have sometimes had to put males that were "first timers" or slow starters with an "established" female first to get them started and it has worked for me.

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This is what I did with all of my males because all but one were virgins. &, I tell you, those veteran girls showed them the ropes...lol. But not every pairing so far has resulted in a lock (although I may have missed a few). I've been pairing since the first week of November, 3 days in, 4 days out. 3 males, 6 females (so far. I have 2 more in QT until mid-late December). And I've witnessed 6 locks so far. (1 of those girls has not locked yet with any male. & she's my gigantic one too...). But I think they are just practicing for the colder months :D

Great Quote!

Also if I recall the book also talks about the females being the ones that need "jump started" into breeding.

Barkers book talks about males breeding not being seasonal and is possible year round but the female has to be in vitogenesis (big word for follicle development, spelled incorrectly no doubt) to lock with a male and breed.

Assuming I'm remembering and understanding correctly the task for a breeder is moreso getting the female to start vitogenesis than it is to get a male to breed her.

Hope that helps :)

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Originally Posted by rabernet

This is just for information only - and I posted it on another thread about battling males:


Quote:
Here we go - from Pythons of the World, Vol 2: Ball Pythons, Barker & Barker, p. 216


Quote:
We don't combat our males. Ball python males are not as quick to combat as some other python species. Typically, only very closely matched males that have never before had the chance will combat. We don't ever expose our older, established males directly to each other. In ball pythons and other pythons, it is our observation that some youngsters, having been roundly beaten in combat, may not show any courtship behavior for years.

Emphasis added by me.

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actually the book does say that males will breed at all times of the year but they undergo a seasonal gonadal recrudescence. pretty much meaning that their testes increase in size which causes an increase in testosterone and increased testosterone means an increase in sex drive and sperm production. so cooling males may help positively affect your "slow starters" if you need to give em a jump start.

with females, environmental factors such as cooling and introduction of males for example, as well as physiological factors can cause her to undergo vitellogenesis which is actually the production of yolk which is needed to develop follicles. so cooling females may help them to start the production of the yolk needed to develop follicles although there are other factors that are said to cause a female to undergo vitellogenesis.

hopefully im not mistaken and hopefully this may help someone out.:)