I am a new BP breeder, I have a lot of questions & really would love to talk!

[snakelover91]

Hello, my name is Ruby. I LOVE snakes, they have been my passion since I was 3 years old and met a reptile educator. Right now I own 2 ball pythons, a young normal female named Fiona (she is 271 grams, obviously this thread isn't about her!) and a Mojave/Pastel/Spider male named Frederick who will be 3 in December. Frederick is currently 563 grams because for most of the time I've had him, I was feeding him every 2 weeks, but he is noticeably beefing up now! I have been feeding him every week for the past 2 or 3 months I believe, when I started getting more serious about breeding. (btw Fiona eats every week, and always has. Never misses meals!)

Anyway, given Frederick's age, is he sexually mature? I am going to get a proven breeder female in a month or 2 who will probably be 4 years old. Frederick is a proven male, I tested this myself, but I just checked for sperm plugs and I can't tell if it was pee or sperm. I don't really like popping my pythons, I did it to verify my snake's gender but right now Frederick is red in his vent area from me popping him 2 days in a row. So I don't want to check again... in about a week I'll bring him to somebody who breeds Ball Pythons and see what he thinks. But given Frederick's age (almost 3) is it pretty much a definite that he's sexually mature?

Also, I know that male BPs get more excited around other males, but sadly I'm not able to test this. Any opinions or advice from you all would mean a lot, I really want to learn and do this right! This is a huge passion of mine, and not only that, I am getting my friends who were once afraid of snakes to actually want to adopt my future babies. Please comment, the more information I have the better!



P.S. I really am a NEWBIE, taking this very slow, I just got my scale today to weigh my snakes. I feel no rush here, it's all about the snakes!