Today was Rodent cleaning day.  It is something I don't  look forward to, but once I get going I get really into it.  Right now most of my production is rats.  I also do some mice but not at such a large scale.

Breeding your own rodents is a nice way to save some money.  I couldn't imagine having to buy all the rats I go through in a week to feed my snakes. 

The best part of breeding your own rodents is you have access to any size you need when you you are feeding.  I don't have to wait for my order to come in, or hope my suppler has what I need.

Last year, a big percentage of the ball pythons I bred gave me eggs.  That has a lot to do with the fact that the females were well fed.  The ability to grab the right rodent when I needed really helped my breeding season.  Right now, I am feeding the females heavily to get them nice and big. Hopefully, I will have the same luck getting the females gravid this season.

 

       It is raining here today, so I threw some balls together. I already have some lock ups.  Rain and snow is great for ball breeding, but sucks if you have to go out in it. 

On non ball python related news I bought myself a trio of albino California kingsnakes. The majority of my collection is balls but I have a few small groups of other things.

Some time during the week I am going to try my hand at making a video for youtube.  I'm not much of a talker so they will be short.

          This year instead of doing an incubator page I will just do a blog. I will try to post as much as can of whats going on in the reptile room. I will try to write something in every week but if things are slow, it will be  once a month.
           I am starting a little earlier this year putting pairs together than I did last year. I don't really cool the ball pythons down like some do. The room gets cooler in the winter from the weather out here in the northeast but I don't change the heat tape at all. The room gets down into the 70's. This had worked great for me so far so I will just stick with it. On the males tub I have a card that lists all the females he's scheduled to breed across the top in order. Under that I put the number of the female hes in with with the date he went in and the date he came out. I label any copulations on a separate card on  the females tub. On her card I just list the date and the male that copulated with her. I keep  a clamp with a neon tag on it and put it on the tub I will leave a male in. This way I can see easy where the males are at a glance. I keep a male with a female for 3 days if I don't see copulation. If I catch copulation I take him out as soon as I find him off the female.
          I don't  stop feeding females until they refuse food a few weeks in a row. I will still offer a few after they refuse for the first time. Some times ball pythons just don't want to eat just not because there breeding or the females are developing. The males I try to feed every week even if they keep refusing. If a male is not feeding but looks good and not losing weight great. Breeding can take a lot out of your males and they can lose a lot of weight if he isn't eating and breeding everything he see's. If he is getting too thin then he gets a longer break till he feeds again. I don't have a set break time in between females I just watch the males and try not to push them too far.
          That is all I have to say about that for now but I will keep you posted of my breeding's and what I'm doing. I do have other stuff I'm breeding but I will mostly talk about ball pythons.



     

        Here is a pic of some Borneo's that recently hatched out.