first time breeder questions

[donkiez]

My snakes are almost ready for their first breeding season and I have a few dumb questions for the more experienced breeders.

1) How do I know for sure my females are ready? My biggest girl is almost 1500g and will be 3 this summer.

2) Is there some good online step by step guides anyone can recomend?

3) If she is ready now, should I start or wait till breeding season?

4) Is it better to put the female in the males cage, vise versa, or both in a neutral cage?

5) When lowering temps do I lower so my temp prob in the cage reads the appropriate temp or do just set my thermostat to the appropriate temp. I use a rack set up and my cage temp always seems to be a few degrees cooler than what I set my thermostat temp to.

6) Any other tips or advice is welcome, thanks!

[Turbo Serpent]

First off your thermostat probe is on the heat tape it sounds like so that could be why it is just a few degrees off. Secondly, I would set the thermostat so the temps in the tubs are correct.

As for a step by step guide, check out Markus Jayne's site: http://www.ballpython.ca/gallery/breeding.html

They have everything you will ever need to know about breeding.

I would wait til breeding season if its your first time. Good Luck this fall.

[BAD Morphs]

I have never bred yet but have watched alot if Ralph Davis videos and he seems to just introduce tha males into the females tubs. Here is a link I had someone give me about breeding and it is like a timeline of what do do when and what temps they use. As for if you should wait or try now, I have no idea but would like to see what someone else says. Like I said I have never bred before so I am just going off of what I have read and watched but if I am wrong someone will let you know for sure! I hope you get all the answers you need!!
http://www.8ballpythons.com/journal/...ngcalendar.htm