Breeding Basics

Before you breed: Before you start your journey into breeding ball pythons, it’s important that you first master the basics of their husbandry. Once you feel confident in their care, you’ll want to have everything you might need before you even start pairing. This means having an incubator, incubation supplies, hatchling rack, and all husbandry essentials to take care of up to 17 hatchlings.

Size: It is recommended for females to be at least 2-1/2 years old and over 1500g. Males should be over 500g. In addition to size, only breed animals that are steady eaters, tested free of disease/parasite, and have excellent general health.

Breeding season: Ball pythons do not require a cool down or brumation and while kept in captivity do not exhibit cyclic seasonality. Meaning they can develop follicles at any time of the year as long as ambient temperatures remain somewhat consistent. In parts of north America that are influenced by large seasonal changes, you might notice your females’ cycles aligning due to the slight variation in room temps from winter to summer.

Pairing: it is recommended, when pairing, that the male be placed in the female’s encloser. If there is interest from both animals, you should might witness courting behavior such as tail-wagging and scenting. If the animals begin to combat, separate them immediately and double check the genders of both animals. Many breeders discover they have mis-sexed animals when this occurs. If all goes well, you will observe a good “lock” which can last from 1hr to 4 days!

Building: As the female begin developing follicles, you might see some changes in her behavior. She will become ravenous for food and may even strike at you! She will find comfort on the cooler side of her enclosure, and you might even see her wrapped around her water bowl. Towards the end of this building process she should look quite thick right in the middle section of her body.

Glow: Most experienced breeders can tell when a female is going to ovulate based on her color. Her shed prior to ovulation often leaves her exceptionally bright; this is often referred to as “the glow before they go”.

Ovulation: Once follicles reach a certain size, the sperm stored inside of the female can fertilize them and transform them into eggs. Ovulation is typically noticeable for 12-48 hours so check your females often. The thickness that was midway down her body will grow larger and move further downstream. Her underside near her vent will appear sucked in and you should see a crease on the lower portion of her side along the swelling (I call this the abdominal line). At this point, it is decided how many follicles will be used, and whether they will go on to become good eggs or slugs. Past this point reabsorption can no longer happen.

Heatseeking: Once ovulation has occurred, the female will begin nesting on the warm side of the enclosure. As the eggs grow inside of her, she will begin to feel uncomfortable, and you might catch her contorting her body or laying on her back.

Post-Ovulation Shed: about 2 week post-ovulation, the female will shed. This is important to document as most breeders count the day until eggs from here rather than the ovulation date.

Almost there: Up until this point, your female has been comfortably nesting on her warm side but when she is preparing to lay, there are a few changes you might notice. Typically, a day or two before laying, females will become restless, twisting their body and stretching out across her enclosure to get the eggs moving in the right direction. She will then lay curled up with her tail in the center of her coils.

Eggs: Most females lay their eggs roughly 30 days after their post-ovulation shed. They can go a little earlier or later so be sure to check them often! The earliest I have experienced was 28 days but most of my females go later (35-45 days after POS). Whether early or late, eggs incubate just fine. The most common reason for females laying later is temperature. I keep my females on a cooler hotspot, between 86-87F, because it is theorized that warmer hotspots increase slug-rate.

note: it is not uncommon for inexperienced females to fail at gathering up all her eggs. Eggs left outside of her coil for too long will become too cold and die. This is another reason to artificially incubate (see incubation).

Slugs: No, not the slimy guys! A slug is the term used in the reptile industry to describe an unfertilized egg. They are smaller than a good egg and have a yellow, rubbery skin. These can be disposed of or fed to a monitor/tegu.

Incubation: There are two ways to incubate eggs, maternally or artificially. For both methods, eggs should be kept between 87-91F with close to 100% humidity. Keeping eggs on the warmer end, often leads to higher risk of defects in hatchlings. I personally keep my incubator set to 88.0F so temps can spike or drop a little and still stay within a safe range.

Maternal: Female ball pythons are fully capable of incubating their own eggs, but this method should never be thought of as the easy route or a fallback for not having an incubator prior to breeding. Throughout incubation, temperatures and humidity need to be kept high and consistent, something difficult to accomplish in an enclosure. If you are not already using plastic tubs, it is heavily recommended that you switch to them and use a moisture holding substrate such as coconut fiber. Some females will take food while they incubate but others may not. For this method, you will want your females to be well over the minimum breeding weight with some fat reserves. This method should not be attempted by first-time keepers but if you still decide to do it, seek out a breeder who is very experience with maternal incubation and ask for their mentorship.

Artificial: This method not only allows the female to return to feeding sooner, but also allows us to better control all the variables during incubation. When it appears that the female is no longer actively laying, it is safe to remove the eggs. Keep in mind that she will be defensive and special care must be taken to keep you from getting bit, and her from jostling her eggs. Be sure to watch YouTube videos of how breeders remove their female from the eggs. There are a number of reliable incubators made by people who’ve bred for many years such as CSerpents/Hotbox and Willbanks. If price is an issue, there are commercial options such as hovabators and similar styles that can be bought from reptile supply sites but over the years, I have heard more people having issues with these. If you want to keep costs down, I recommend building one yourself using a non-functional wine fridge or a cooler. There are tons of DIY videos on YouTube to walk you through the process.

Incubation issues: There are many reasons for issues to arise during incubation.

Non-viable eggs —Some eggs that are laid may look good but not have a strong enough embryo. When candled, these eggs often appear with no veins or weak veins. These typically go bad in within the first couple weeks of incubation and are of no fault of your own.

Eggs deflating/shriveling — In the final two weeks of incubation, the eggs will begin to deflate a bit as the walls of the egg thin out to allow for gas exchange. Eggs deflating before the last two weeks is cause for concern. This means that the eggs are too dry and can possibly die if left unchecked. Water can be added to the substrate to bump humidity and clingwrap can be applied to the top to prevent moisture escaping.

Mold — Eggs that go bad will usually mold but as long as the other eggs in the clutch appear healthy, the mold is nothing to worry about and the bad eggs can be left in the bin. Occasionally, a good egg is affected by mold but these typically incubate fine as long as the protective film on the egg is intact. Eggs that have gotten wet will have a weakened shell and should they mold, a dusting of athlete’s foot powder should be enough to save them.

Wet eggs — if wet spots appear on the top of your eggs, then they are being dripped on. Dripping water erodes the protective film on the egg and will cause it to go bad. If this is happening, there is too much condensation building on the lid and you need to understand why it’s happening to find the proper solution. If the moisture buildup is due to overly moistened substrate, the lid should be wiped dry, and a tiny pinhole can be added to each side of the egg box allowing excess moisture to escape. If the egg box becomes too dry, tape can be applied over the holes. Many breeders recommend using clingwrap to seal the top of their eggboxes, but they are often times what cause of too much condensation build up. Only use this method, if you mix your substrate on the dryer side. You can place a small object under one side of the egg box so that it is not sitting flat, allowing condensation to roll off to the sides. Wet eggs are a common problem for new breeders during their first season because one of the main causes of condensation buildup is opening the incubator and/or egg box. Usually done repeatedly in attempt to “check on” the eggs or simply out of excitement/impatience. Every time you open your incubator, you are letting warm air out and cool are in. This creates a temperature difference inside the box and condensation forms. Not only does this cause dripping from the lid, but it can also cause condensation inside the eggs themselves. You will know if this is happening because the eggs will appear wet when there is no water on the lid. The eggs will discolor and often sweat out a greenish fluid. There is no saving an egg once this happens.

Green sweat — Green sweat is an indication that the embryo inside has died. If only one egg is sweating, it could be safe to assume that one was simply non-viable but keep an eye on the rest of the clutch and check all your parameters.

Pipping: Somewhere between day 51 and 65 you will see your first pip! Incubation temperature often correlates to incubation time but there is also variation from clutch to clutch even when all were incubated at the same temp. When I incubate at 88F, most of my clutches pip around day 58-60 but I’ve still had clutches go as early as day 52 and late as day 70.