I’m going to start breeding my ball pythons In October or November does anybody have any tips or stuff to do and stuff to don’t do
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Patients is key… there is no set timeline from first lock to eggs. Make sure your girls are fed appropriately because they will be off food and you don’t want the to loose too much weight during the time they are gravid. Set up your incubator before you start pairing to make sure it is running smoothly. Don’t over breed… once a month or shed is plenty for a female. If the male stops eating and continues to refuse take him out of rotation they will starve themselves to breed. Have everything ready for hatchlings… the average is 6 per female but you should be prepared for more for larger clutches. I’m sure there is more lol
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Here’s my checklist -
Before even considering breeding:
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Have you had ball pythons for a while and perfected basic husbandry and ball python knowledge? Do you have a good working understanding of the breeding process?
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Are the snakes you have marketable/desirable combos and high quality examples of each morph? Do you know how to identify all the morphs you’re planning on working with alone and in combos? Can you differentiate between higher and lower quality example of the morphs? There’s no shortage of ball pythons, so it’s important to only breed the highest quality animals, and not just breed for the sake of breeding. The world doesn’t need more poor quality low end morphs and normals floating around on craigslist.
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Did you buy from breeders who test for nido/arena virus? Are you going to health test everyone before breeding?
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What is going to set you and your hatchlings apart from the hundreds of other breeders out there? As a new breeder with no connections/reputation in the hobby, what would make people want to buy your snakes specifically?
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Are you planning on selling locally or shipping? Do you know what’s necessary to prepare animals to ship & sell or what the local ball python market is like? What types of ball pythons are people near you buying and what does their budget seem to be? How long to do you see similar morphs staying on the market before they sell?
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Are you prepared to keep all the babies as long as necessary and provide adaquate enclosures/husbandry if they don’t sell?
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There are a lot of hidden costs involved with breeding, check out my cost of a clutch chart.
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Do you have an exotic vet nearby? What if your female is eggbound or experiences health problems while gravid or after laying? Do you know how to spot a problem and able to get her help ASAP? This could also be expensive
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Do you know how to properly sex ball pythons and identify any/all of the morphs you are breeding?
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Do you have a source of live mouse hoppers or live rat pinkies/fuzzies so that you can offer hatchlings food every 3-5 days? Many won’t take F/T for their first meals. What if one has to be assist fed? Do you know how and when to do this safely without harming the hatchling?
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What if one is born with defects and has to be euthanized? Do you have a plan for how to humanely euthanize a snake?
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Markus Jayne’s tutorial on his website was extremely helpful for me in the early stages learning about breeding ball pythons. I still use it from time to time as a general guide.
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Thank you this was very helpful I will make sure to do a lot of this