Ball Python Breeding 2013-2014

I began my inaugural ball python breeding season by dropping cage temperatures in late October of 2013 then I introduced males to females beginning in November. I decided to try the Markus Jayne method for my first attempt at breeding balls. Below are some pictures of successful locks between my male and female balls. I'm currently setting up a new incubator and just recently turned my cage temperatures back up to 92 degrees. I've done some research and several breeders don't change temperatures year round. I might try that next time depending on the turn out from this season. One thing that I have learned from keeping reptiles is that you do what works best for you. Good luck and I'll hopefully be back with pictures of eggs and snakes hatching in the near future.

Orange Ghost het Car X Double het Glow



Bumble Bee X Lemon Blast het Car



Bumble Bee X Normal



Mystic X BEL (Lesser Mojave)

Mice Breeding Basics

I've started a new colony of mice to help feed my growing ball python collection. I've decided to direct my attention towards breeding ball pythons although I will still breed Bearded Dragons and Uromastyx yearly. Buying mice weekly started to accumulate to roughly $100 a month so I weighed my options. I was able to pick up a few used mouse racks, $20 a piece, from a friend locally. You could easily build your own rack system, just check YouTube for instructional videos or try the Google on the internet device and I'm sure it wouldn't cost much more than what I paid. Now I spend $16 a month on a 24lb bag of Special Kitty cat food, $10 on 8lb bag of Hartz: Large Bird Diet,  a 50lb bag of Kent Cubes Rodent Diet (you can usually find this at your local feed store) for $20 that lasts forever, the water is free as we're on a well and I buy a huge $20 bag of shredded aspen to avoid mites, roughly every 3 months. That brings my monthly grand total to approximately $35. The only drawback is having hundreds of mice in my garage, make sure they can't escape, that could be seen as a "problem". I guess hundreds of mice colonizing in the walls of your home might be a bad thing. If you're not scared of mice and you might actually kind of think they're cute like I do then I recommend breeding your own mice if you own more than 3 ball pythons. The advantages out weigh the cons in my situation. I'm ensuring that I'm feeding top quality healthy mice to my snakes, I'm saving close to $65 a month on the mouse bill and I love animals so the more the merrier! As of now I have 2 racks with 6 tubs each but I'm thinking about upgrading to a new rack after purchasing a breeding pair of rats. My larger ball pythons prefer rats and I realize they have a higher nutritional value than mice but I'm always worried for the safety of my snakes. Mice will cower in the corner once they realize a predator is in the 10 gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck with them while rats will take a defensive position and fight back. If you own ball pythons then you know exactly what I'm talking about. My bumblebee, Loki, can't stand rats, not even rat pups but mice are like candy to him and I'm pretty sure 99% of all other ball pythons on this Earth. Loki had a bad experience with a rat when he was younger and I just can't get him back on rats for some reason. If anyone has any pointers for me it would be great to hear your educated opinion. I also prefer live over frozen thawed feeders and I don't own a deep freeze. I've included some pictures of my mouse racks below along with some mouse pups and the aspen bedding I use, check it out.

Golden Rule #2 Remove your male mice as soon as your females look pregnant!

Female Desert Ball Python: Unproven Breeding

Desert Ball Pythons are beautiful visual morphs. Unfortunately as far as I've read there have been no confirmed successful clutches laid by female Desert Ball Pythons. Some breeders have speculation that if you're able to get the snakes weight over 3,000g that she will produce a successful clutch but there is no confirmed data to back this up. As far as I know, trusting the opinion of two guys I seek advice from quite frequently, Joe and Clark from Powerhouse Reptiles, the female Desert Ball Python's egg ducts are too small. This causes them to throw slugs and unfertilized eggs. I've seen beautiful 4 gene Desert's selling for under $500, once again this is just a beautiful pet and can't be put into a breeding program. I wouldn't mind having a pet like that but part of the fun is breeding them! If you do try to breed your female Desert you put her at risk of becoming egg bound which could lead to her demise. Now for the dirt and grime of the reptile industry. Several breeders have invested large amounts of money into their Desert breeding projects. How do you think they plan on making their money back? Well of course, selling their inventory. Now don't get me wrong you can make some beautiful morphs with the Desert gene but at what cost? Desert females are being sold without the disclaimer that they cannot be bred. Now who knows one day, someone might unlock the genetic secret to successfully breeding these wonderful morphs but until then we're at a stand still. Unfortunately, I've seen several Desert Ball females being sold at outlandish prices. Some breeders even describe their Desert Balls as dinkers, Ball Pythons with "unknown" genes. This will help them avoid being pinned as a con artist when they know what they're dealing with but this description is used as a disclaimer for unsuspecting customers. Then when the snake reaches breeding size, if she is bred without knowing what her genes are, she could die or be faced with a serious health risk. Ok, so what if she does lay a clutch, you've just produced 8 solid slugs. Who are you going to come looking for if you do your research after you all ready make the purchase, the breeder and guess what, "He didn't know what her gene's were." Be careful and don't make the mistake of buying into the Desert gene without knowing the consequences. Below I've listed some pictures and articles that will go in depth more than I have, probably from breeders with much more experience than I, check it out.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1458949

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?170524-Has-desert-female-breeding-got-anywhere

http://thereptilereport.com/breeding-desert-females/

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/python-regius/89914-question-about-desert-morph.html

Desert Ball

Desert Ball

Desert Spider

Desert Mojave