Joe Compel Reptiles

BREEDING RECIPE

The breeding process can be simplified into a few steps: pre-breeding feeding, cool down, introductions and mating, warm up, ovulation, pre-egg laying shed, and egg laying or deposition.
Prior to breeding season, ball pythons must be well fed. Especially females. Generating eggs is a taxing process for females and it consumes a stunning amount of body weight. If your females don’t have adequate body mass going into breeding season, either one of two things will happen: they won’t produce or they will throw slugs.
I plan all my pairings prior to cool down. Check out the breeding program article for more information on this topic. Normally, my snakes have a hot spot of approximately 90° F available during all hours of the day. Ambient room temperature is normally in the mid to upper seventies. I start cooling my snakes in the early part of October. I put my heating elements on timers and stick to a “12 hours on, 12 hours off” schedule. During the day the basking spots are on and are allowed to get to their normal temperature of 90° F. At night the basking spots are off and the animals’ enclosure drops to ambient room temperature. During cool down, which coincides with winter, the ambient room temperature is in the lower to mid seventies. The lights in the room are also put on a schedule to simulate reduced winter daylight.
Introductions and mating take place during the cool down phase. Two weeks after I start cool down, I start placing males in females’ cages. Males generally stay in a female’s enclosure for 24 to 36 hours. The male then comes out and is placed with the next female or is given a couple of days rest. If females are receptive at this time, copulation will occur and the snakes may remain locked up for quite some time. If copulation does not occur then I keep moving the male through his rotation. Breeding season lasts for four or more months so there is plenty of time for him to get the job done.
Warm up starts in February when the heat in the enclosure is put back on continuously. Most of my females are bred by this time and a few may have ovulated (most likely due to subtle changes in ambient temperatures). However, ovulation usually occurs in the weeks after returning to the warm up schedule. Once ovulation occurs, the male’s job is done. Females swell from about halfway point to the last third of their body during ovulation. It looks like they ate a huge meal. This swelling can last as long as 24 hours. Breeding serves no purpose after ovulation and won’t occur if the female truly did ovulate.
Approximately 30 days after ovulation, the female will enter a shed cycle. This shedding is an important one – it lets you know when eggs are due. The female enters a shed, which may last 7 – 14 days, but the date of the actual shed is the important day. Egg laying occurs about 25 to 30 days from the shedding day.