Uncle Iroh? or Aunt Iroh? Prince Zuko? Or Princess Zuko?

[Libby]

I walked down stairs to find Iroh and Zuko locked up. Well that opens up several cans of worms. One of them being eggs. I'm kinda excited to see if we get baby ball pythons.
 Looks like I have some more work cut out for me.

[Catherine]

You can't always tell from watching them breed which one is the male. Of course one of them will start eating more and put on weight. Then you will know.

You should be able to find a good video of ball python eggs and how to incubate them. You will be surprized at how big they are.
You will need a bigger egg box. Hopefully your incubator is big enough. This is a really fertile year for reptiles.


https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&...f_C5LF11jg

This looks like a good link.
You have lots of time before one of them lays eggs.

I think you will be hatching something this year. Baby ball pythons are so sweet. This is exciting. Keep us posted.

[Libby]

(06-09-2017, 04:09 PM)Catherine Wrote: You can't always tell from watching them breed which one is the male. Of course one of them will start eating more and put on weight. Then you will know.

You should be able to find a good video of ball python eggs and how to incubate them. You will be surprized at how big they are.
You will need a bigger egg box. Hopefully your incubator is big enough. This is a really fertile year for reptiles.


https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&...f_C5LF11jg

This looks like a good link.
You have lots of time before one of them lays eggs.

I think you will be hatching something this year. Baby ball pythons are so sweet. This is exciting. Keep us posted.

We may not have as much time cause they have been together all winter and that's usually their breeding season so my thoughts are if they are doing it now they could have been doing it this whole time. Iroh is about to shed and I'm pretty sure based on size and minor tail differences that he is the she. If that's the case shedding gives us very little time. I've been watching all of Brian barzck (however you spell his name) on YouTube. He's the one you said was really detailed. We have most everything we need except the cooler which I'm getting today.

[Libby]

They are boys. Which means it's time to separate them. Thankfully I have extra tanks.

[Catherine]

Both of them are boys? Were they breeding or were they coiling around each other?
How many ball pythons do you have now. One of them must be a female.

Usually they shed before egg laying. They only breed once in a year so they could be breeding now. I know the corn snakes are all breeding. The ball pythons I am not sure of. I have two males. I have a female on breeding loan because she is a match for my Mojave male. I have not seen them breed, but she is hungry, really hungry.

It is usually better to separate males. Sometimes they will live together. If they were coiled around each other it would be best to split them up. Snakes don't really fight like other animals, but one male can intimidate the other.

[Libby]

We've never seen them coil but they were breeding, tails locked together. Our snake friend came over and probed all the snakes. Jean-Luc, Iroh, and Zuko are all males and Bellatrix is a girl. I think just to give both of them a better life it's going to be better to separate Iroh and Zuko. We are just waiting for the heating pad and locks I ordered to get here. I already have extra tanks.

[Catherine]

The two boys would be better separated.  Bellatrix could breed though. How big is she. You could try any of the three males with her.
You do want locking lids. Ball pythons are good at getting out. They are strong enough to push an ordinary lid off enough to get out. I have bricks on some of my tanks just to be sure.

[Libby]

(06-14-2017, 03:11 PM)Catherine Wrote: The two boys would be better separated.  Bellatrix could breed though. How big is she. You could try any of the three males with her.
You do want locking lids. Ball pythons are good at getting out. They are strong enough to push an ordinary lid off enough to get out. I have bricks on some of my tanks just to be sure.

She's pretty small. over a year old. She eats 3 pinkies. I haven't measured her. But she's smaller than the boys. Zuko is the closest to her size. I'll see if I can find a picture of her. I don't think she's ready to have a man visitor yet.

[Catherine]

If Bellatrix is still eating pinkies she won't be ready to breed for a couple of years. The breeding loan female is now eating two big adult mice at a time and she is just ready to be bred. Ball Python eggs are bigger than chicken eggs so the female needs to be a good size. A smaller female would probably lay smaller eggs, but they would be too small to do well.

That gives you lots of time to prepare. Breeding snakes takes years. Even after you have the stock and the setups you still have to wait for the snakes to grow. Bellatrix will end up bigger than the boys some day. You can pick the male with the best colour or markings. Size won't matter.

[Libby]

(06-15-2017, 02:42 PM)Catherine Wrote: If Bellatrix is still eating pinkies she won't be ready to breed for a couple of years. The breeding loan female is now eating two big adult mice at a time and she is just ready to be bred. Ball Python eggs are bigger than chicken eggs so the female needs to be a good size. A smaller female would probably lay smaller eggs, but they would be too small to do well.

That gives you lots of time to prepare. Breeding snakes takes years. Even after you have the stock and the setups you still have to wait for the snakes to grow. Bellatrix will end up bigger than the boys some day. You can pick the male with the best colour or markings. Size won't matter.

If we ever decided to breed, Bellatrix and Zuko would make pretty babies.  She's a Russo and he is a pastel but I'd say he's just barely older than her by maybe 6 months.  Jean-Luc is 9 and huge for a male ball python at 4ft so I'm expecting Bellatrix to get to his size.  Iroh I'm not as sure about he could be 3-4 years. He's not fully grown but getting pretty close.  He's no where near Jean-Luc though.