• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Breeding

mmitstif

mmitstif

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O.K.,here's my situation.Any advice is appreciated.
I'm mainly a rat snake guy but ever since I saw my first pied I wanted to produce my own.
In 05 I purchased 1.1 het. pied.
The female was at 1200 grams last season and I chose to wait till this season to pair them up.
She now weighs around 1600 empty the male is at around 700.I'm sure thay are both muture enough and heavy enough.
Thay are kept in 32 quart sterilite tubs in a heated rack.
For the last 3 weeks I have been turning the heat off at night,back on for the day time.Ambiant temps at night in the snake room are around 72 degrees.
They have been paired up off and on since last november.Seperated for feeding for a few days then back together again.Both are feeding like I have never seen before.Ripping frozen thawed rats from the tongs with no hesitation.
When paired up I check them at least twice a day hoping I will see a lock-up.
So far all they do is lay there together looking stupid.(for lack of a better term)
I'm not experianced at palpating follicles so hence keeping them together as much as possible.Will they ever get in the mood?I really want to see some return on my original investment which was more than 2 times as much as what you can buy hets. for right now.I'm not interested in selling any pieds I would produce,(unless I produce more than 1)I just want to keep one as a future breeder.I hear people say it's early yet.And the way they are feeding kind of tells me they are not ready to be in the mood yet?Any advise?
 
First - consider the obvious....
Have you verified that they are in fact male + female?
You wouldn't be the first to discover that your breeding plans were messed up by having 2 males (or two females)
 
As Harald said, the obvious is always the first thing....resex them to make sure it's actually a pair, lol.

Second....I wouldn't be turning the heat off at night. 72 degrees is too cool for BP, most only drop them temps a bit at night, if at all. They may be too busy "cuddling" to stay warm (LOL, that's kind of a joke) to really get busy.

Third...they may not be in the mood yet. Some of mine that are actively breeding are still feeding, some have been off feed since late fall. It depends on the individual snake. I have one male that just had his first lockup of the season a few days ago.
 
You beat me to it Harald! :) Other tricks? Simulate the start of the rainy season by misting them both once a week. Leave them separated until the female sheds and then put them together. Upon shedding females release pheromones that entice the males to breed. Space the time you are putting them together, and check when your "female" is finally ovulating before introducing the male.
 
Yes, they are in deed a pair.The first thing I did when I got them was probing.
Been breeding snakes since the early 80's and am proficiant in probing.
 
The BoidSmith said:
You beat me to it Harald! :) Other tricks? Simulate the start of the rainy season by misting them both once a week. Leave them separated until the female sheds and then put them together. Upon shedding females release pheromones that entice the males to breed. Space the time you are putting them together, and check when your "female" is finally ovulating before introducing the male.
Click to expand...
Yes,I forgot to mention that I have tried misting them also.I am also thinking that since they are feeding so well that I would keep feeding and wait for the females next shed then reintroduce.
 
You've only been cycling them for three weeks though. Most breeders started the breeding season as early as October.
As far as your snakes know though, it's only the beginning so they may not have fully gotten into the cycle yet.

As for the temps, a night time temperature of 72 is not too low for balls. There's two schools of thought on breeding, generally speaking. One is to leave the basking heat on round the clock all year and just lower the ambient temperature of the room in the winter, the other is to drop the entire cage at night and warm to a lowered backing temperature during the day.
Both methods work, you just have to do whatever works for you. Currently my balls are experiencing 68-70 degree night time temps with no basking site and then getting an 85-88 degree warm area during the day.
I have also used the other method of providing a 88-90 degree warm area constantly while lowering the room temperature to the lower 70s.
Both methods have resulted in fertile eggs for me and no instances of RI or anything from the night drop.

Some females will continue to feed through most of the breeding season, while others will go off feed. Males however usually refuse food when cycled, but some will continue to feed.
Feeding response is an indicator, but not a 100% reliable one.
 
I dropped my temps last year down in the low 70's at night and didn't see a lot of action. This year I didn't drop the temps at all and it's been non stop action. That could be because a number of factors I guess but I'll never drop my temps again.

Most breeders I talk to these days don't seem to drop their hot spot temps at all. I think most peoples ambient temps drop a few degrees naturally from seasons that combined with the low barometric seems to be enough to stimulate a good strong breeding response.

I think in a few years you'll see less and less breeders dropping hot spot temps to breed ball pythons.

just my 2cents paid by post dated check:)
 
Clay Davenport said:
You've only been cycling them for three weeks though. Most breeders started the breeding season as early as October.
As far as your snakes know though, it's only the beginning so they may not have fully gotten into the cycle yet.

As for the temps, a night time temperature of 72 is not too low for balls. There's two schools of thought on breeding, generally speaking. One is to leave the basking heat on round the clock all year and just lower the ambient temperature of the room in the winter, the other is to drop the entire cage at night and warm to a lowered backing temperature during the day.
Both methods work, you just have to do whatever works for you.
Click to expand...

Clay, you are absolutely right, I should have added the all-important "IMHO" to my post when I stated that 72 degrees is too low. It does seem to work fine for some, though when I have tried the complete night time temp drop with some of mine, the snakes seemed to just be sluggish, and not be nearly as "active". Those also seemed more likely in my experience to go off feed....so I simply drop the basking temps a bit, and the ambient temp has a bit of a natural drop during the season anyway. I PERSONALLY have had much better luck that way. ;)
 
The most common method is of course what you outlined, leaving the basking site on all the time and just lowering room temperatures. That's the method that most of the big breeders use and the majority of people feel more comfortable reading a how to guide and following the accepted "recipe".
There's nothing wrong with that and I do it that way more often myself. I haven't found any difference in my collection really in breeding response from the males or egg fertility from one approach to the other.
Still it's best to point a new breeder toward the most common methods I suppose.

I just like to tinker with various methods just to see what happens and to see if I might expand my knowledge a bit.
I've had failed breeding seasons and lost clutches before exploring methods not normally used. I learned things along the way though, so even the failures have been successes in that respect.
 
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