Well, I have a baby ball python who approximately 16 inches right now (born on July 9th). He was fed last Saturday by his previous owner and I obtained him Tuesday. Needless to say, I'm gonna have to feed him in the next week or so.

So, I was planning to head to Petco tomorrow and check out what they have for mice so that I could start my own feeder colony. Here's where my questions come in.

Since I only have one snake (and plan to have only him for quite some time), how should I set up my colony (in terms of a male to female ratio)? I planned on doing a 1.2 ratio or maybe even a 1.1 since I'll be using the babies quite young at this point in his life. However, I did plan on keeping a male and a female from that first litter in the event that one from the pet store died, was sick, etc.

Also, I know I'm going to need multiple tubs because I've read that you are supposed to remove the male from the enclosure that the females are in so that he doesn't eat the babies. So, I was going to have 3 tubs. Tub1-females. Tub2-male when the females are pregnant. Tub3-babies when they are ready to be removed from mother. If I need more space than that, it won't be hard to add on but is it true that the removal of the male is necessary? I've heard mixed things.

Thanks! Please educated me I've been reading a lot but everyone seems to breed for upwards of 10 snakes and I only have my one little guy. It might seem silly to breed just for him but in a few months I'll be back to being a relatively broke college kid, so the breeding with cut down his feeding cost some.