Do you cool your breeders?

[rabernet]

While barometric pressure drops are a powerful trigger for copulation, in my experience they will not, by themselves, ever lead to successful reproduction.

And yet - in drier seasons (ie drought), many breeders (including Graziani on Reptile Radio) have reported a lower yield in females that actually go on to lay eggs. Those are seasons with very little barometric pressure changes. Ball pythons breed during the rainy season, the barometric pressure changes help to stimulate them to breed and produce. If it's too dry when eggs are laid, then eggs would die, and so they don't waste the energy to build and carry eggs that are not likely to survive (I'm referring to ball pythons in their natural environment, but they still behave similarly in captivity).

[BChambers]

And yet - in drier seasons (ie drought), many breeders (including Graziani on Reptile Radio) have reported a lower yield in females that actually go on to lay eggs. Those are seasons with very little barometric pressure changes. Ball pythons breed during the rainy season, the barometric pressure changes help to stimulate them to breed and produce. If it's too dry when eggs are laid, then eggs would die, and so they don't waste the energy to build and carry eggs that are not likely to survive (I'm referring to ball pythons in their natural environment, but they still behave similarly in captivity).

You misunderstand me-that has been my experience as well! Last year, which was a winter of record drought in this part of Texas, the number of copulations we had was cut in half here.

As I stated, barometric pressure is a powerful stimulant to copulation. But it is not sufficient by itself. Without pronounced temperature cycling, I daresay our results would have been dismal-as it was, we had a "decent" season, with more than half the clutches we got on the previous "good" year.

Also, it is my understanding (backed up by the Barker's book, Ross and Marzek, and other sources) that balls actually do their mating in the "cool dry" season-that way their eggs are timed to hatch in the wet season, when prey will be abundant.

[rabernet]

You misunderstand me-that has been my experience as well! Last year, which was a winter of record drought in this part of Texas, the number of copulations we had was cut in half here.

As I stated, barometric pressure is a powerful stimulant to copulation. But it is not sufficient by itself. Without pronounced temperature cycling, I daresay our results would have been dismal-as it was, we had a "decent" season, with more than half the clutches we got on the previous "good" year.

Also, it is my understanding (backed up by the Barker's book, Ross and Marzek, and other sources) that balls actually do their mating in the "cool dry" season-that way their eggs are timed to hatch in the wet season, when prey will be abundant.

Gotcha! While I don't lower the temps on the heat tape, the ambient temps do naturally drop in the winter here. But I've never intentionally dropped the temps on the heat tape itself.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I have the past 2 seasons this year I will not (I always like to try different things )

[slaonesserpents]

i drop temps 8 degrees for 2 months and start pairing in the second month and have had great sucuess ( on average 90% lay eggs in wich 85% hatch in the past 3 seasons) i also mist daily when i bring the temps back to normal

[lance]

A breeder told me at a reptile show your not suppose to cool them only with temp. drops at night.

lance

[cinderbird]

A breeder told me at a reptile show your not suppose to cool them only with temp. drops at night.

lance

did he recommend doing something else?

[mason]

We've found that regardless of cooling females or not we still end up with around the same percentage of females who copulated actually going on to produce eggs.

[Big Gunns]

So, i've been listening to a ton of reptile radio at work lately and the topic of breeding always comes up and some breeders seem to cool and some dont. I was wondering what everyone else does in the form of a poll. I plan to start breeding next year and would like to see what works for others so I can make an educated decision for myself.

Feel free to comment on what your approach is to things. The poll style will allow for the selection of multiple answers if you've done different things that have worked for you.

If you don't...... BG believes you should. Although with Ball Pythons you can get good eggs almost no matter what you do.

[TheReptileEnthusiast]

The warmer months in the BP's natural range are Nov-Feb when the average temp is 82, daytime high is 90 and the overnight low is 73.

The coolest months are July and August when the average temp is 75, the daytime high is 81 and overnight low is 72.

Rainfall starts picking up in March and April and peaks in May and June with 5.7 inches and 7.6 inches respectively. The driest months coincide with the hotter months(Dec, Jan)when they may only get half an inch of rain.

The ambient temps in my snake room vary enough seasonally to simulate the slight seasonal changes in equatorial western africa. I don't mess with the belly heat. However, I just realized the wet season in S. Florida coincides with the hot season, while in Africa it coincides with the cool season. This may be why dry winters here can be troublesome. Usually though, we get just enough rain and coinciding pressure change to get things going.