My first breeding season :)

These are my ball pythons that I have to start breeding for my first season. I'm excited and have been dealing with herps for about 4 years. Here are my balls

1.0 2009 spider
0.3 2009 normals
1.0 2009 pastel
1.0 2010 yellowbelly
0.1 2010 normal
0.1 2010 spider
1.0 2011 spider het. Hypo
0.1 2011 pastel
0.1 2011 het hypo
1.0 2011 fire

So I think I will have a good first breeding season I'm wondering what grams is best for the females to start breeding? I know one of my normal females will be big enough. Let me know some tips on size I know the other 2 2009 females are about 1000grams.

You will want to wait until they are AT LEAST 1500g. Bigger the better !

Good luck!

If they are ready they will let you know I start around 1200g if they breed & get the feed bag on by the time they are ready to go off feed & lay eggs they will be 1700g to 2200g,if they arent ready they wont go.I have a 5 year old pastel female & her normal size is 1200g call her small boned if you like lol,she lays every year 4 or 5 small eggs.

Ok. That's what I was thinking

Thanks for the advice one of my girls is like that. She is smaller than my big girl that eats everything,

Originally Posted by GREGORY J HALL

If they are ready they will let you know I start around 1200g if they breed & get the feed bag on by the time they are ready to go off feed & lay eggs they will be 1700g to 2200g,if they arent ready they wont go.I have a 5 year old pastel female & her normal size is 1200g call her small boned if you like lol,she lays every year 4 or 5 small eggs.

I guess it is all personal preference. I would never breed a "virgin" under 1500g.
I can see having a girl that you know has always been small and comfortably breeding her but not a virgin. I just don't see why to hurry it.

Im going to see what my snakes like. Either way I know I'm going to be happy with just one clutch even if it's just pastel to normal. It's a start. Thanks guys.

Its not just on preference, you may never get a mouse feeder over 1500 grams, I've had that problem in the past but lay just fine. I've had mousers that stay in the 1200-1400 gram range that won't go over. You just need to pay attention to your snakes and you will know if they are ready to breed or not.

If my girls were only 1000 grams at this time of the year I'd be waiting till next year.
Your girls have only put on 500 grams per year so far, 500 gram divided by 12 is only 40 some grams a month weight gain, at that rate it will probably take 6 months or more before they have enough weight to breed successfully.

I bred 2 virgin 18 month old females that threw 11 perfect eggs between them, they also weighed 1500+ and 1800+ grams.

Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

If my girls were only 1000 grams at this time of the year I'd be waiting till next year.
Your girls have only put on 500 grams per year so far, 500 gram divided by 12 is only 40 some grams a month weight gain, at that rate it will probably take 6 months or more before they have enough weight to breed successfully.

I bred 2 virgin 18 month old females that threw 11 perfect eggs between them, they also weighed 1500+ and 1800+ grams.

That's what I was trying to say...
More than likely you are going to know if they are just "mouse eaters" that just won't grow well. They will probably be a little older than 2-3 years old. I would definitely wait and at least attempt to put more weight on them. If they are still around this size next year, then you would have a better idea that they are just not going to get big.

I am guessing if you wait they will grow for you.
Good luck