Question about breeding..

To those who have experience breeding ball pythons...how many females can you successfully breed one male to? Would 3 or 4 females to one male be ok or should I have more than one male?

Every breeder is different as is every snake. Now the typical "rule of thumb" is a single male can handle as many as 5 females. But I know some breeders that feel 3 females to a single male works best and I know breeders who will cycle as many as 7 females to a single male.

I personally feel you need to know your specific male's breeding abilities and take it from there. Some of my males are real studs and I would not think twice about throwing more than 5 females at them. Now I also have some males who are probably better suited to only have 2 or 3 females cycled to them. They just are not real strong breeders and do not consistently show a strong breeding response.

So basically if this is your first year breeding a particular male then start him with 3 girls and see how he does. If you are getting a good breeding response out of him with those three then add a 4th to the rotation. Then a fifth if 4 seems like no problem.

But yes, most males will handle 3 to 4 females with no problems.

Originally Posted by shrap

Every breeder is different as is every snake. Now the typical "rule of thumb" is a single male can handle as many as 5 females. But I know some breeders that feel 3 females to a single male works best and I know breeders who will cycle as many as 7 females to a single male.

I personally feel you need to know your specific male's breeding abilities and take it from there. Some of my males are real studs and I would not think twice about throwing more than 5 females at them. Now I also have some males who are probably better suited to only have 2 or 3 females cycled to them. They just are not real strong breeders and do not consistently show a strong breeding response.

So basically if this is your first year breeding a particular male then start him with 3 girls and see how he does. If you are getting a good breeding response out of him with those three then add a 4th to the rotation. Then a fifth if 4 seems like no problem.

But yes, most males will handle 3 to 4 females with no problems.

Well said.

I just saw an ad for Butters from JnJ that said the sire of the babies in the ad bred 12 females for the season. Wow!

Wow! Thank you both for clearing that up for me.