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Breeding question

C

Chillswitch

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I'm a first time breeder this year.

I hadn't cooled my snakes yet (it's still too hot where I live, I was going to wait one more month), but something about my female's behavior gave me a strong hunch that she might be interested in breeding. It sounds weird, but I gave in to intuition and put my male (who has been hissing at me like an angry cobra every time I've opened his cage lately) with her, and they have since been locked right up.

My questions:

- If I continue to let them go at it, without cooling, will they still breed successfully? They are awfully interested.

- When does the female produce follicles? Is it after being bred, or is there some biological timer that makes her ovulate at a certain time during the breeding season regardless?

Was hoping for some advice! Thanks for reading.
 
They do not need to be cooled to successfully breed, continue on, if they are already breeding I wouldn't bother cooling.

The female will grow follicles sometime after the introduction, could be a month, or 3 or 4 months, or worst case not at all.
It seems like females have their own schedule and many will drop eggs at around the same time each year, year after year.

Feed her as much as as you can at the beginning of breeding, hopefully she'll eat well until she slows down and stops eating and rewards you with healthy white eggs :)
 
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There's nothing weird about following your intuition and letting the snakes "tell" you what they want. Way too many people jump into this, read books and forums, and forget to just sit and WATCH the snakes. It's amazing the things you can pick up that way.

As far as the rest, I agree with the above. There's been no evidence that ball pythons require a cooling period to breed/lay eggs. As long as your caging gives them a good temperature gradient, they will choose for themselves whether they want to be warm or cool.

Good luck!
 
I think that if cooling helps at all, it only pushes them to start the breeding cycle before pairing actually begins. In most of their natural habitat, the temps do not cool 10 degrees from summer to winter. So while obviously not neccesary, I've had good success with temp drops and will continue to do so.

I love the comment about actually observing your animals. I too feel that this often overlooked. Too often we go by the consensus for what has worked, rather then look closer at the variables and your own idividual animals. It has been proven that people have been successful with very diverse husbandry practices, its because each situation and animal is unique. Know your animals and you will have better luck in all aspects of your collection.

I agree with everyone else to continue pairing, but if you have a ND thermostat I would start to cool as you continue pairing. I will keep cooling until about April or so. Kudos for paying enough attention to sense that they may be ready on their own. Best of luck.
 
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