Breeding Noob

[Reptilius]

Greetings, as stated in my other thread.I am experienced at keeping snakes.
I will in the next few weeks get into BP's for the first time.

Living in South Africa, our seasons are at a different time of the year to you guys and gals.
We have Autumn from March till May, Winter from June till August, Spring from September to November, Summer from December till February.

When do I need to start cooling them, and When do I need to start pairing them.
Any replies would be greatly appreciated.

The list of pairings is on my other post.
I will be using 1 male for my first season with 3 different females.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I usually recommend this http://ballpython.ca/breeding/ for new breeders , however I will add this you can breed year round and do not have to cool out of 10 years breeding BP I have not done either in the last 7 ad I live in the south of the US pretty warm except for 3 months. The important is to be able to read your animals and pair them at the best time (using low barometric pressure) and finally find what works for YOU.

[Reptilius]

Thank You Deborah

Here our temps are roughly on average year round as follows.

Daytime November to March 33c.
Nightime November to March 27c.

Daytime April to June 28c.
Nightime April to June 24c.

Daytime July to October 25c.
Nightime July to October 18c.

Nightime July to October normally produces a temp of 10c for a period of about two weeks, otherwise it is pretty constant.

I am glad that I don't have to do cooling.

[cchardwick]

All the big breeders cool their ball pythons during breeding, it's pretty much standard practice across the board. However, I don't cool my BP either! In their native habitat there isn't really a cool season. The triggers I use to breed are increasing food consumption and pairing up males and females. Seems like cooling is counter productive, I find that if I increase or decrease my room temp or hotspots I have a lot of ball pythons going off of food from the temperature change. That's exactly what you don't want, you want an increase in food consumption. For me it seems like the more food a snake eats the more times I see it locked up with the male. And I don't wait for follicle growth before I pair up, it seems that pairing up actually stimulates the follicle growth and gets things going. I also don't watch for and record locks, doesn't really matter to me. I just keep cycling the males through nonstop for five or six months with weekends off for feeding. The females either go or they don't. It seems like the females that don't go are the ones that don't eat very well during the start of the breeding season.

[Reptilius]

Thank You Chris, one more question.
If I was to follow your method, and looking at the seasons and months where I am as posted in Deborahs answer to me,
in what month would you suggest I start cycling my male. I will breed him to 3 females.

[Maddumpling]

Also on the feeding part, you want the females to be feeding very well because if the female does have a clutch of eggs or is ovulating, you want those fat reserves to be there because a lot of that will be depleted after laying eggs. Snakes tend to lose 5-700 grams after laying eggs and they become VERY skinny. And I believe a better feeding female will have better size clutches and healthier eggs.

[cchardwick]

I think most people start pairing up in November and December. You can actually breed any time of year, but I think most people shoot for having babies in the summer / fall because they want to sell them at the shows in the fall and ship while the weather is still warm. Most people won't ship when it's cold or during the Christmas holidays because of the shipping delays. Personally I think it would be better to do just the opposite and have many of your hatchlings available in the spring. I've been to some reptile shows early in the year, most people are selling hold backs or snakes that didn't sell the year before, there's not much available and you would corner the market and have a supply when most people are sold out or waiting for eggs to hatch.

[Reptilius]

Solid Advice Chris.

So, If I want babies in Spring which starts in September till end of November here where I live, then I must pair up in the beginning of March.

Do I understand this correctly, that BP's breed all year round and not only at a certain season of the year.