Breeding Qs

[kraniumz]

Me and a friend is planning to start a project together. This due to the fact that unlike in the States, its really hard to get morphs around here!

I am now owning 2 normal females, one a 6 months old and the other is 1 year plus. My friend is currently owning 2 young females as well. Obviously this project will kick off in a year or 2. So we're doing our research and getting our equipments ready i.e. incubators, rodent breeding, racks and etc.

Enviroment
Here in Malaysia its hot and humid. Room temp is about 88F and goes down to 84 or so at night. Humidity is about 60% in the cage and 65 - 70 outside the cage (Room humidity).

With this condition, do we still need to get incubators ? We can easily raise the room temp to about 90f by just fixing a ceramic heat lamp. I doubt we could find anyone selling a heater here, unless ofcourse we order one online. But by adding the lamp we can also change the humidity level to 60 permenantly.

Morphs
We are planning to start off with a pastel. So the question is, what are the outcomes of breeding a male pastel to 4 females ?

[kavmon]

pastels are a co-dom trait that means that on average 50% of the offspring will be pastel and the other normal. for an incubator you could use a well built cage with shelves in it or an old refridgerator!
NERD has a nice genetics page on their website

thanks

vaughn

[hhw]

You should still use an incubator... ball pythons normally maternally incubate their eggs so you'll want them to be at a very steady temperature.

As for breeding a male pastel to 4 normal females, it would all depend on the females in question. Females have been bred at 18 months, but that is not the norm. If they're big enough by then, you can always give them a try though, but plan for them to not breed until 30 months. Also, not every female will take for you, so it is good that you have more than one. I would hope for maybe 2/4 to take? Average clutch size for ball pythons are 6, but since your females will be young, plan for 4 perhaps? So, within 2 years, a reasonable estimate would be 8 offspring with 4 pastels. Just because your odds are 50% though, keep in mind you could get anywhere between all pastels or all normals, depending on the luck of the draw. If getting back your money quickly is an issue, I would hold off on buying the pastel male until all your females are breeding size, and then purchasing an adult proven breeder pastel male. Even then, expect it to take a year to get the male in the same cycle as your females.

Good luck!!! I'm starting off my first season with pastels, so I'll post about stuff I learn along the way.

[kraniumz]

Thx alot for the tips regarding the incubating. That setup is really cheap. hope it works! Ill guess i find out about a year or 2!

For the time being, im just stuffing up the females Dont worry im not gonna overfeed them.

In regards to pastels, is there any possiblity of hatching Hets ? The clucthes will only hatch either pastels or normals right ?

But couple of Qs:-

1)What do you mean by waiting the male to cycle ?
2)How often can a female breed ?
3)EDIT- Ok ive read on kingsnake that a guy has been powerfeeding his female. And if you planning to breed your female you can never overfeed them as they will use the excessive fats to produce eggs. He claims that his females never lay less than 10 eggs per season! Is this true!?

Anyways, good luck to you too hhw!

[hhw]

1) Ball pythons are very dependent on seasonal changes. Even in captivity, ball pythons may maintain a seasonal cycle without any external factors. Since your male and females may be born at different times of the year, or may just be on different seasonal cycles due to their previous care, you should keep in mind that you will need some time for them to synchronize their internal clocks so that they are all in their breeding season at the same time.
2) Every other year would probably be best, but some people breed every year without problems. It would all depend on how well they feed and recover their weight. Some females will still breed every year, but may end up with more infertile or unhealthy eggs.
3) Powerfeeding is a controversial issue; it's proven that caloric intake reduces longevity in mammals, although not enough testing has been done for this to be conclusive in reptiles. I've also heard that in the wild, ball pythons often fast for months at a time and then in other months, they will eat entire gerbil colonies in a single sitting. In any event, it would take 30 years and LOTS of ball pythons to test this out on, so no conclusive evidence will be coming out anytime soon. You should just do your own research and form your own opinion. I personally feed my ball pythons after 2-3 nights of "hunting" mode. Depending on the size of the prey item, this varies between 2x a week to once every other week. I know people who feed every day before breeding season (which should be when they eat most in the wild), and people who normally feed every other week and only once a week before breeding season. I guess I'm currently somewhere in between.

[Deven]

geez hhw you sure learned a lot, wish i had a breed to hang with, that would be so fun to learn first hand. gdla your' sharing your smarts hey.

my question then is, am i sabotaging my breeding by having both M|F in the same vivarium?

[Adam_Wysocki]

my question then is, am i sabotaging my breeding by having both M|F in the same vivarium?

You very well could be. Back in the mid 90's when I used to breed ball pythons communally, many times pairs would turn into "lackadaisical" breeders. I would always joke that they turned into a "old married couple" :lol:. Sure, pairs housed together could turn out to be teriffic breeders, but then again there's a chance that they won't. Introduction of males to females or vice versa during a cooling period ensures breeding with vigor and more predictable results.

If you're to maximize your chances of producing offspring, you certainly should not house your pair together year round.

All that said, housing ball pythons together is not a good idea in the first place for a long list of reasons.

-adam