Here is a brief interruption which seems all to common as of late.
Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
When you see bad behavior or a possible TOS violation, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it
Antagonizing or belittling posts have no place on this forum.
Then don’t breed it.
This thread is about how many consecutive seasons is it safe to breed a ball.
Not about getting them to live to 50 years.
And since I said getting a snake to live as long as possible to me is what’s important, doesn’t mean I didn’t breed, just I breed every other year to extend their lifespan when I used to breed balls. I don’t anymore because the market is flooded and balls in my opinion are the most boring snakes to keep.
If none of us bred balls, you wouldn’t have any balls in captivity except wild caught.
My point is people need to stop with the fake “moral high ground” of “not breeding for money,” and casting judgments on people who do this as part of or all of their living.
Because it IS fake. If you wanted you animals to live as long as possible why would you purposefully subject it to the most physically stressful and taxing thing that most living creatures naturally go through- breeding? Either, you’re going about that “goal” completely wrong or you’re being disingenuous.
(MN I don’t mean to say YOU, you btw. I’m pointing out the hypocrisy of such a statement generally.)
I’m getting tired of people on here who like myself have a year of experience and 2-3 animals getting on and taking folks to task that have been breeding successfully for 20-30+ years just because they watch Snake Discovery or Youtuber XYZ and the Scriptures of Emily or whoever else are the only things valid to bring to a discussion. Lord knows I’ve sparred with people here before upon disagreeing but it’s really getting snarky and uninformative.
You can breed a female once and she might die soon after, you may never breed a female and she might die by age 2, there are also females breeding well into their 20’s
There is no guarantee with live animals, it’s all about doing what is best for YOUR animals as you see fit and I think everyone can agree on that whether you are a pet keeper, hobbyist breeder or pro breeder.
Don’t want to breed your animal every year, don’t
Want to breed your animal every year they’ll let you know whether or not they will.
Just to be clear on my goal of breeding. I breed because I want to make snakes affordable for everyone to keep. Also I breed because I believe that’s the best way to keep these animals from being taken out of the wild, which for balls is completely unnecessary I think.
But you’re overall post has some very good advice in it, for myself and others. I’d be completely blind to say I haven’t acted 100% respectful in that regard. I’m usually misunderstood but that’s no excuse for anything.
Thank you for your advice and criticism, I think it was needed.
This was an assumption in general. I went back and looked over my post and I hope you didn’t misunderstand that I wasn’t talking about you in particular, just about some breeders who do this for monetary gain. I truly don’t think you are one of them, and I sincerely apologize if it came across that way, which I can see how it did.
I appreciate everyones comments on this thread. Good spirited discussion! I will continue to focus on the health of my females and breed them if I think they are ready while, at the same time, work in a year off here and there which I will have to do anyway because I have a limited capacity on how many clutches my incubator can hold (10) and how many babies I can safely care for, about 60. All good stuff. Thank you,
As for the ball python market, which has been mentioned in this thread and maybe needs to be a new thread, I don’t think it’s flooded. Part of the fun of this is moving up the ranks and investing in higher end morphs to stay relevant with the buyers you want to stay relevant with. When I first started I was making lots of pastels and fires and non recessive stuff. The snakes were inexpensive and most people buying them where buying them as pets. That was fun, but now I’m producing mostly clowns and pieds and soon ultramels and i’ve started selling to other breeders and that’s even more fun because I get random texts about babies they have hatched or stuff they have bought and it’s awesome to stay connected especially during this time. Just a fun hobby for me. The more people in this hobby/business breeding and sharing knowledge, the better.
Whats temperature do you house your females at during breeding?
Room temp is 82 during the day and 78 at night but this year my hot spot was 90 and I think that was too high.
This is a great thread. As a hopeful whos just getting started its great to see input from so many people on things that I hadent even known were such a concern. Its good to see passionate debate even if it can ruffle some feathers. Just goes to show the pride everyone has be it hobby or business. Im extremely grateful we live in a time that has such a large community and is so easy to be a part of! I dont know yet if I’ll be breeding my females every year… But i think as has been said a few times now that a combination of our responsibility as owners and the females instincts, and something you just need to learn for each individual animal. I cant wait to join you all as an active breeder and be able to give my official input so we can all work together to give our snakes the best!