New snakes. Should we wait?

Brand new breeder here. We just picked up a breeding size male and female a few days ago. Should we go ahead and pair them up or wait a bit, get them settled in and get a couple meals? The girl hasn’t taken food yet and we haven’t offered to the male yet. Female was paired for the first time last year but didn’t go. Male just got up to size this year.

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Originally Posted by KSballer

Brand new breeder here. We just picked up a breeding size male and female a few days ago. Should we go ahead and pair them up or wait a bit, get them settled in and get a couple meals? The girl hasn’t taken food yet and we haven’t offered to the male yet. Female was paired for the first time last year but didn’t go. Male just got up to size this year.

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Are these your first two snakes?

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Originally Posted by Craiga 01453

Are these your first two snakes?

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We got 4 within the past month, 2 are breeding size and 2 are hatchlings. But these are our first, yes.

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Originally Posted by KSballer

We got 4 within the past month, 2 are breeding size and 2 are hatchlings. But these are our first, yes.

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Then you should be focusing on quarantine and learning about keeping these animals. Breeding shouldn't even be considered until you've got years of experience keeping snakes.

Are you quarantining these animals?

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Originally Posted by Craiga 01453

Then you should be focusing on quarantine and learning about keeping these animals. Breeding shouldn't even be considered until you've got years of experience keeping snakes.

Are you quarantining these animals?

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Yes they are currently quarantined.

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Originally Posted by KSballer

Yes they are currently quarantined.

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So how can you pair snakes that are in quarantine?

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Originally Posted by Craiga 01453

So how can you pair snakes that are in quarantine?

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Some people will pair snakes in QT if they came from the same source. Personally I think that's too much stress on them, plus you don't often know if the prior owner had the snake for a few days or a few years.

I know u probably will not take my advice but I wouldn’t even think about breeding for the first few years. The longer u own these the more u learn. And then u see the market is flooded with ball pythons. So why are u breeding? That’s the question. If u say your passionate about snakes I’m going to disagree because the fact that ur ready to breed and u don’t have a clue about what ur doing. If u did know u wouldn’t ask this question and u would know that it’s best to be an experienced keeper before u think about doing the tons of research before thinking about breeding. Do u have a thousand dollars set aside for mishaps, illness, equipment failure? Do u have a vet that really knows snakes? Do u have an incubator or are u thinking that a guy put them in a styrofoam cooler one time and it worked so I’ll do that?

If u can answer all those and be truly prepared then yeah go for it. But playing god with animals when u haven’t even owned one for more than a month is crazy to me

I have to agree with the above. I don't think you should even be considering breeding yet. You JUST started keeping snakes and want to jump straight into breeding? Why do you NEED to pair them so soon? What are you pairing? What are you hoping to get out of this? Because it sure is coming off, to me, that you're in this for the wrong reason and you just want to pump out babies as fast as you can.

Let the snakes settle down, Pair them next year if you can't wait any longer. Learn more about keeping snakes, about breeding, feel out the market, decide if you would REALLY be contributing something positive to the BP market.

Usually those who breed kept the species as pets for awhile to see if they like working with them, or have previously worked with them, then proceed with breeding plans. You are doing the opposite way: putting the chariot before the horse, if you will. Have you experienced your first months long feeding strike with a bp? Do you know what to do when a hatching refuses to eat its first meals? I agree QT should still have done first, even if they are from the same breeder. You don't know for sure if that breeder raised the female or the male himself/herself, it is common for breeders to buy stock from other breeders. And you don't known for sure every incoming snake was properly QT by the seller.