How I breed ball pythons!! Long post.

[Thomas Jones]

This is by no means the only way to breed balls. I had a friend bred his this way and took his ideas and it has worked really well.
PREPARTION FOR BREEDING
I start early in the year. I pick out which females I feel could be ready for breeding come time to do so in the fall. These females are fed really heavy. Usually 2-3 times a week. I feel this gives the females enough fat reserve to produce good eggs and fewer slugs. The less slugs the better right.
Males are fed once a week just to maintain good weight.

MY RACK SET UP
I use home made rack systems. I have 11 in heat tape for belly heat. The tape is hooked up to Johnson controls thermostats. The hot spots are between 88-92 degrees. Ambient temps are around 80-82. These temps are for the off season not for breeding.

COOLING FOR BREEDING
When it comes time to cool for breeding I hook up an oil filled electric heater to a Johnsons control.I set the ambient temps to stay at 80-82. If i do not do this the ambient temps will drop lower. Starting around the first of Oct. Cut the food off to all the snakes. I hook up a timer to the Johnsons Controls. Around the 15th of Oct. I cut the JC thermostats off for approximatly 2 hours at night. (usually from 8-10 PM) This allow the snakes to slowly cool down to ambient temps of 80-82 degrees. After a month I increase the time the heat tape is off. Usually 2 more hours(from 8pm - 12 am) I also reduce the ambient temps to 78-80. After another month or so at these temps I do the same thing again. Increase the time the heat tape is off from 8pm - 2 am. Then lower the ambient temps to 76-78. (this is the lowest i let the ambient temps drop). On or around January 15th I cut the thermostats off from 8pm - 4 am keeping the ambient temps at 76-78 degrees. Come Feb 1st increase the time for the last time that the heat tape is off from 8pm - 6 am. I will keep it this way to around May first. I then turn the ambient temps back to 80 degrees and slowly return the heat tape to stay on full time.
HOW TO ROTATE MALES
My racks are 8 tubs high. I try to keep the male I am breeding above the females I plan to bred him with. So if the pied is in tub number one I have his girls in tubs 2,3,4 etc. Again this is my way of keeping them. I usually put a male in for 2-3 days and give him a rest. I check on them early in the morning between 6-9 am and also late in the evening between 8-10 pm. Most of the time this is when I see most of "THE ACTION" happening. I write down what dates the were actually copulating. I rotate the males in and out with there ladies. I also plan this season to offer food once a week to both the male and females. This should keep the males in good breeding weight and keep the fat reserves on the females and in return have bigger clutches with the fewest amount of slugs possible.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
As I do the daily checks on who is breeding I look for the signs. Females laying cold or huggin there water bowls. I also look for females that are swelling up. If i notice one female that is swelling up I put her male in with her more often.
TAG TEAMING THE HONEYS

Alot of people put different males together with a single female.
I do this with only Dominant or co - doms. I feel the best time to switch up is when you notice a female swelling. Once you see her swelling put one male in with her in the morning and if they are seperated at night put a different male/morph in at night. Do this till you see ovualtion.
IS MY BALL OVUALTING OR NOT
You see this posted alot on the forums and for good reason. When females are building and not ovualting sometimes they look like they are actually ovulating. I have on a couple of occasions notice a female swelling and she will do so for a week or so. But then I noticed her ovualting(or so I was thinking she was) only to check on the same female a day or so later and she looks like she ate a football and was actually ovulating at that time. Why does this happen I have no clue. To be safe keep the males rotaing throught the females. No harm in keeping them in until you are 120% sure the female is gravid.
_______________________________________________________
This has worked very well for my friend and I. I hope this helps make your breeding season one to remember. Again this is not the only way to breed balls. Its just my .02 cents.
Any questions feel free to PM or e-mail me.

[rabernet]

Nice post Thomas - thanks for sharing your methods! I'm sure it will help someone!

[Ladydragon]

nice post and I think this should be stickied for easy reference.

[Thomas Jones]

Thanks so much. I missed breeding snakes last season due to help open a new Pet store in my area. I spent alot of time drilling glass and plumbing up Salt and fresh water tanks. I did end up with one clutch of eggs a very small clutch of 2 eggs from a pastel male to a proven female. I hatched out 0.1 pastel poss het pied and 1.0 poss het pied. Good luck to everyone this season.

[Larry Suttles]

Thomas, just wondering if you palpate your females or not?

nice post btw

[Thomas Jones]

Yes I do. But I start around Mid January to First of Febuary.

Thanks Larry love REPTILE RADIO!!!

[Larry Suttles]

Yes I do. But I start around Mid January to First of Febuary.

Thanks Larry love REPTILE RADIO!!!

Thats pretty much the same time I start givin them the big squeezzzze.

It's really cool seeing other breeding techniques. I like to steel bits and pieces..

Thanks for the comments and for listening

[Thomas Jones]

Thats what I done Larry. I took these ideas from a friend. But it so simple I was trying to make breeding more complicated than it is. With this method snakes get cooled down slowly over time. Only thing I plan to do different this season is offering food to the snake.
Good Luck this soming season Larry.

[StickyTongues]

Thomas,

When you say you fed them 3-4 times a week what size prey do you give them? I'm curious because all of my adult females will only take 1 or 2 small - medium rats a week if I give that to them. I usually only feed once a week. These are my 3000+ gram girls I'm talking about.

[Thomas Jones]

I will feed them a sm-med rat/rats say on Mon. Then again on Wed then again on Fri Sat.
One female that laid 13 eggs for me ate 2 small rats and 1 large and one jumbo in the span of 6 days.If I feed her small rats she will eat 7-10 in one week. They are usually swollen up nice and good after feeding like this. They usually eat like this till they get ready to shed. It makes for more cage cleaning but it is worth it in the end.