Golden Showers

[xdeus]

Well definitely forgive me for the wrong advice. I believed it to be way worse for them to spend half a day sitting in urine. Live and learn...

No problem. I was kind of on the fence with that one. I know urine is sterile, but I was also concerned about the ammonia. On the other hand, I know injuries can/have occurred with a hemipene being severed, which seems far worse than sitting in urine for a half day. Speaking of which, I checked on them this morning and they were still locked up. I'm glad I did move them without incident as my rack doesn't have a lot of air circulation, but I don't think I would risk it again.

[jglass38]

I think what I got out of this thread was

"copulation is a precious event"

Exactly!

[elevatethis]

Ball pythons are nasty breeders! I read that females will even urinate around eggs during maternal incubation to control humidity levels (Kevin M, TCBP).

[Adam_Wysocki]

I was kind of on the fence with that one. I know urine is sterile, but I was also concerned about the ammonia. On the other hand, I know injuries can/have occurred with a hemipene being severed, which seems far worse than sitting in urine for a half day. Speaking of which, I checked on them this morning and they were still locked up. I'm glad I did move them without incident as my rack doesn't have a lot of air circulation, but I don't think I would risk it again.

This is one of the reasons why I'm such a HUGE fan of Freedom Breeders. If you're going to be breeding ball pythons on any type of scale, the open air system is EXCELLENT for breeding season. There is no ammonia build up and even the largest floods of urine dry quickly. Ventilation ROCKS!

-adam