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Albino X Albino Het
Albino X Spider Het Albino
Super Pastel X Black Pastel
Bumble Bee Het Ghost X Orange Ghost
Clown X Pastel Het Clown
Ivory X Yellow Belly
Pastel Lesser X Black Pastel
Pinstripe X Pastel
Pinstripe X Spider

Breeding season is always an exciting time for me.  I guess it’s that way for all ball python breeders.  Breeding/Copulation leads to ovulation which leads to egg laying (oviposition) which leads to egg hatching!!!  I keep meticulous records on my animal pairings.  I write everything in a notebook and also use 3×5 index cards on each cage to record who is with who and what I observed when they were together (e.g. did I observe copulation?).  I reconcile what’s on the 3×5 cards with the log book I keep and then transfer all of it to a database for long-term record keeping and analysis.

When my animals are paired I ususally look in to see what’s going on.  Do I see courtship behavior?  How about a good lock (e.g. breeding)?  In order to make sure I don’t disturb anything going on I always open my cages slowly and peek in just enough to see what I need to see.  To make sure I know that two animals are together I always put a white stone in front of the drawer.  This keeps me from accidentally pulling a drawer open too fast, causing coitus interruptus.  Over the years it has turned into something of a superstition for me, too.  The rocks have to be very white and very smooth.  There can’t be any roughness to them.  In my mind I want the breeding to go smooth so I thing I subconsciously decided that the rocks needed to be smooth, too.  A bit odd perhaps, but it’s how I do it.

Coming into my facility and seeing rocks all over the place makes me happy.  It’s a season:  breeding season!

Colin Weaver