Ok, so my husband the wannabe ball python breeding expert got into a conversation with a fairly large local breeder at the last show. Now, this man has a lot of ball pythons, and always has a steady supply of very nice babies, so he HAS to be doing something right. He's been breeding for many years now, and is well respected in the business, especially here locally.
His advise to my husband, which I am having a hard time with, was to pop his male/males before putting them in with a female, each time and every time, and the purpose of this popping is to remove the sperm plugs. He claims if you do not so this, your success rate for fertile eggs will be much lower than if you do. He claims it's a big "breeder secret" that all the bigger people know and use but don't tell anyone about. He says the plugs prevent transfer of sperm, resulting in low fertility rates.
I have my doubts about this information. In the first place, I can't see bigger breeders taking the time to pop a dozen or two dozen males each and every time they pair them. Not to mention, the bigger the male the harder it is to pop them. But now my husband is convinced if we don't do this, we'll never get the number of babies we should. I think it's a waste of time, and since he can't pop and I can this slightly nasty task falls to me.
Can anyone verify or disprove this information ? Has anyone ever bothered to do this for an entire season ?
Gale
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