Optimal ball python male to female ratio?

Pythons Ball Pythons
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I come from a boa breeding background where I primarily targeted a 1:1 or 1:2 male to female ratios with great success. With ball pythons I have seen mixed recommendations. Some breeders indicate a male can easily go with 5+ females in a season (I recall one youtube breeder state his male successfully bred 10 females one season) while I’ve seen others recommend to only plan on pairing a male with 2 to 3 females.

For each given project my thought is to target 6 females and 2 males. If one male isn’t a strong breeder the other male can potentially pick up the slack and I might still have a shot breeding most females. The additional male adds a layer of redundancy.

Any thoughts/recommendations? I’m still much in the early stages of planning and I’d like to target optimal male/female ratios and invest wisely. Any insight is much appreciated.

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I think this really depends on your circumstances/your males. Personally, I like maybe a 1:3 ratio. I don’t like spreading a male too thin or having to rely very heavily on one individual. It’s good to have a backup, and it’s good to have diversity!

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Depends on the male, his age, his stamina willingness to eat through the season etc

I have had a male breeding 9 females in one season without issues but my ideal per project I like to run 1.3 to 1.5 and I do not back my males.

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