Ralph Davis Reptiles - The Martrix

BALL_PYTHON_BREEDING_RECIPE

I wrote this in my journal entry for January 31, 2003............I copied it over to this section so it is easier to find.......:)

I have received hundreds of emails each week from all of you....................and I have noticed many of you are following my journal day by day...............and breeding your snakes the same method that I'm doing.............as far as resting and feeding the breeders ..............I get the "breeding temps" question a lot.............so I'm gonna note what I do as far as temps here for all of you ................I start breeding in October............in the first week of October I begin the breeding temps...............and I do it like this..............my heat in the off season is always set at 95 degrees...........and my heat in the breeding season is also set at 95 degrees .............I breed from October till the end of March............that entire time I set the day time temps to 95 degrees and the night time temps to 82 degrees................this is the temp of the heat tape.........right on the tape.............95 day...............82 night..............that's it.............now what I also do is manipulate the lights...............my very first night drop in October is set to start at 7 pm.............that is when the HELIX switches to the 82 degree night time drop................and that is when ALL the lights go out in the room ..............I do this for a few weeks...................then as the winter days get shorter .............I turn the lights and the day heat off at 6 pm...............the when "day light savings time" kicks in ..........I shut the heat and lights off at 5 pm......................5 pm is the final drop of light and heat .................I work my way down to this, and it stays that way until March 31st..................so basically my snakes are going into the 82 degree night time drop and the darkness at 5pm from the end of November until the end of March.............it's that simple.................and it is easy ................I just slowly bring the snakes into longer cooler nights...................in the off season they are used to 95 degrees 24/7...............lights on at 7 am and off at 9 pm.............at the height of breeding season .......November through March............the lights and heat are on at 7 am...................and off at 5 pm................so that is 10 hours of heat and light.................and 14 hours of night time temp 82 degree tape and darkness.................that's when the breeding happens..............at night................My actual air temps during the day in the room are around 80 to 82 degrees during breeding season and almost 88 to 90 degrees in the off season................my air temps at night during the breeding season are in the low 70's...............so at night ..........there is 70 to 75 degree air temp............82 degree heat tape temp............and 14 hours of darkness..............it works like a charm for me..................the best part is that at night when the lights go off and the heat drops down.............the entire room slowly gets cooler .............everything works perfect.................then in the morning when the lights come on and the heat tape turns up to 95 degrees..............the room slowly gets warmer..................it is noticeable to me...............and majorly noticeable to the ball pythons..............it's a season..............it's "making weather" in your own basement...............that will be another lesson..............."how to make cold fronts in your home".................the snakes go nuts for those. Now..............you want to know when I put my pairs together...............it's real simple..................In the first week of breeding temps ................I let all the pairs stay alone .................I give them one week to feel what is going on in the room..................in that week the males and females get restless.................they know it is time to breed .................after that first week ...............I introduce the pairs...................and I keep breeding all the way till the end of March the next year ..................rotating the boys through the girls................the girls through the boys.................two boys through one girl ..................three girls with one boy ...............I do what ever it takes to "trigger" breeding .................sometimes it is as easy as putting a pair together and that's it.................but sometimes it takes a lot more patience on finding out what exactly makes certain males or females "tick".................thats the fun part!!...............I'm always aware of what my snakes are doing ...........I know who is breeding well and who ain't................I know what females are responding and which females are being "stuck up"..................I'm majorly aware of the size of the follicles in my girls that have been bred well ...............depending on the size of the follicles and the way the female is acting determines whether I need to even keep a male with her or not...............when a female is done..............she is done..............she has been bred well.................she starts to "lay cold" ( lays at the cool end of the cage, maybe even around her water bowl, this is when you can almost always feel big marble sized follicles in her, she is done!! ).............she ovulates......................she sheds...................and she lays eggs..........no need to "dud your male out" on a girl that is done..............use him on the girls who are still warming up during the day.........I also offer food to all the snakes at least twice a month............usually every week...............some eat.....some don't.............if they eat thats great..........they get a meal and some rest..........I rest them on the weekends or two days after a meal..............I also do not feed big meals.............meals during breeding season are smaller............because of the lack of belly heat at night............I have had ZERO problems doing this...............the females that eat bounce back much quicker after laying eggs................so anyway................that was a good five minutes worth of "inside info"...............I hope this helps some of you..............make sure you copy this journal entry ...............because it's a good one!!............:)