Snake breeding what is a slug

I would agree they definitely know themselves better than we do. I think if you took away the monetary value from continuing to breed a female year after year, this would not be such an issue.

I think to many keepers are focused on making a buck or getting their name on the map producing a morph or combo that has rarely been produced. And this is all worth it for some eggs to sell or to further keepers projects? I can definitely understand that we have to set those boundaries for our snakes, considering they are very much instinctual animals and will do whatever it takes to pass on their genetics. My butter girl did lay a clutch despite having an abscess in her jaw.

She did have the body condition and was eating well prior to going off food due to breeding reasons, so that was part of my decision in allowing her to breed. Adequate fat storage is key to healthy production. Fact of the matter is, when you keep thousands of these snakes over the course of decades you see and learn a lot of important cues. I agree not every female should be bred season after season.

The biggest and best breeders everyone looks up to are doing these exact things everyone despises…because they know their animals.

It is all subjective. Just my experience. I had excessive slugs this season and have traced to my temps being not low enough for my females. I just passed through my 5th breeding season and every season I recognise and learn something new. It also takes a few seasons with a female before you start seeing a pattern so what might appear to be people not paying attention, could actually just be people going through the process of learning.

I love your comments Osbornereptiles. Thanks for being active, I have learned a lot for them. We have had males breed in their first year and up to four years later.

We have had females lay eggs between 18 months to five years of age. A healthy snake will most likely breed in captivity, but again, we are on their biological schedule. In any breeding collection, owning multiple females will help with breeding success. A single male can breed multiple mates in a season but females laying eggs are what we need to make lots of baby ball pythons. Having more females in a collection increases our odds in getting more eggs.

Some people will try to quick start their breeding attempts by purchasing adult breeding size females. The plan here is to get a jump start into the breeding game because no time was required to grow up the female ball python to maturity.

The plan to buy an adult female to breed her that year, in our experience does not always work out half of the time. While we have had some success getting new adult acquisitions to breed and lay eggs in their first year, some do not until the following breeding season. All animals acclimate to a new environment differently. Some are faster than others, and once they are happy and settled in and feeding, they will eventually breed.

Some of the best breeding stocks one can have are hatch-ling snakes raised by their keeper in a single environment. It is also a bonus to raise a hatch-ling to maturity and eventually witness its first clutch. As their follicles grow, we introduce the male and begin the mating process. In an ideal situation those follicles will continue to grow, ovulate to get fertilized and later transforming into viable eggs. The other scenario a breeder can experience is follicle re-absorption.

A healthy female with good conditioning will lay eggs but some females may reabsorb their follicles ending the breeding cycle. Poor female conditioning or bad temperatures may be the culprit but, a new ball python breeder must understand that a female ball python may not breed successively every year.

Again, we are at the mercy of biology. So its not partho. Strange slug months after laying Ball Pythons. Im just confused how i didnt feel it in it when i palpated. Did you pair her again or is this from retained sperm? My male is a proven super pastel yellow belly so we will see.