spotted python breeding

[cheeky monkey]

I've been keeping spotted pythons on and off over the years and now looking at the possibility of breeding them.
I've got 1:2 spotties. 1 of the females is an adult (around 4' and chunky), whilst the male and other female are early 2015 with a total length of around 32'', and no way near as chunky as the other female (half as thick?)
I wont be breeding the 2015 female, but wondering whether the male would be OK to try to breed with the adult female? I am concerned about the size difference, or if I need to wait until the size is similar?

 

[SpottedPythons]

Usually weights are more expressive than lengths... do you have a scale you can weigh them on?

 

[kittycat17]

I agree with spotted pythons length doesn’t help determine if there ready to breed and to a degree neither does age
Weight is the best indicator.
This season I bred a 2.5yr old coastal who was a quarter of the weight of the female he was paired to. I’ve got a beautiful clutch of 13 eggs in the incubator


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[cheeky monkey]

thanks.
I will get some digital scales to get an accurate weight. I'd estimate though that the big female is over the 500g mark.
I've read that female weight should be over 400g? What about the males?

 

[Fall guys]

Males should be around 150g to 200g.

Females 300g to 400g.

 

[ronhalling]

@cheeky monkey Whist i have no problem with people who want to breed their snakes i do have a problem with some of their reasons, at the moment the market is so flooded with Anteresia Sp in most places you would be lucky to get $50 for each Hatchling, and because of the inherent problems getting them feeding you will end up stuck with them till they are yearlings or even older, it can work out to be a rather expensive project if you are not fully aware of the cost involved in successfully breeding and selling your spotties even if you leave them to be maternally hatched you are going to either need a hatchy rack with heat cord, tubs, water bowls and hides for each baby or click clack setups with heat mats or heat cords and thermostats for each (as you can't keep them all together as predation will occur) then you will need a constant supply of pinky mice then fuzzies and so on. The biggest cost of all is going to be the time required to keep all your new charges happy, healthy and clean. If you don't want to do it maternally you are going to need an incubator and all the associated gear that goes with it, an incubator can be made reasonably cheaply from a broccoli box, heat cord and thermostat, but you will still need tubs and vermiculite to keep the eggs healthy. I am not trying to dissuade you from breeding your Spotties but just letting you know it is not something you can just jump into without all the knowledge required. A good idea might be to open a line of communication with @SpottedPythons and get all the info you need from him, or get in contact with Peter Birch from colorful creations. Best of luck and i am sorry if i have come across as some sort of buzzkill but forewarned is often forearmed. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) -ronhalling-

 

[SpottedPythons]

@cheeky monkey Whist i have no problem with people who want to breed their snakes i do have a problem with some of their reasons, at the moment the market is so flooded with Anteresia Sp in most places you would be lucky to get $50 for each Hatchling, and because of the inherent problems getting them feeding you will end up stuck with them till they are yearlings or even older, it can work out to be a rather expensive project if you are not fully aware of the cost involved in successfully breeding and selling your spotties even if you leave them to be maternally hatched you are going to either need a hatchy rack with heat cord, tubs, water bowls and hides for each baby or click clack setups with heat mats or heat cords and thermostats for each (as you can't keep them all together as predation will occur) then you will need a constant supply of pinky mice then fuzzies and so on. The biggest cost of all is going to be the time required to keep all your new charges happy, healthy and clean. If you don't want to do it maternally you are going to need an incubator and all the associated gear that goes with it, an incubator can be made reasonably cheaply from a broccoli box, heat cord and thermostat, but you will still need tubs and vermiculite to keep the eggs healthy. I am not trying to dissuade you from breeding your Spotties but just letting you know it is not something you can just jump into without all the knowledge required. A good idea might be to open a line of communication with @SpottedPythons and get all the info you need from him, or get in contact with Peter Birch from colorful creations. Best of luck and i am sorry if i have come across as some sort of buzzkill but forewarned is often forearmed. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) -ronhalling-

I definitely agree with you - market is not so great for Ants unless you've got some exotic mutation, but even then you must be prepared to keep ALL the young, if need be. If you must sell, know that there will be many more reputable breeders out there crowding the market. I love Spotteds, and have no problem with you breeding them, but it's best just to breed as a hobbyist and get ready to keep most if not all of the babies.

 

[cheeky monkey]

@cheeky monkey Whist i have no problem with people who want to breed their snakes i do have a problem with some of their reasons, at the moment the market is so flooded with Anteresia Sp in most places you would be lucky to get $50 for each Hatchling, and because of the inherent problems getting them feeding you will end up stuck with them till they are yearlings or even older, it can work out to be a rather expensive project if you are not fully aware of the cost involved in successfully breeding and selling your spotties even if you leave them to be maternally hatched you are going to either need a hatchy rack with heat cord, tubs, water bowls and hides for each baby or click clack setups with heat mats or heat cords and thermostats for each (as you can't keep them all together as predation will occur) then you will need a constant supply of pinky mice then fuzzies and so on. The biggest cost of all is going to be the time required to keep all your new charges happy, healthy and clean. If you don't want to do it maternally you are going to need an incubator and all the associated gear that goes with it, an incubator can be made reasonably cheaply from a broccoli box, heat cord and thermostat, but you will still need tubs and vermiculite to keep the eggs healthy. I am not trying to dissuade you from breeding your Spotties but just letting you know it is not something you can just jump into without all the knowledge required. A good idea might be to open a line of communication with @SpottedPythons and get all the info you need from him, or get in contact with Peter Birch from colorful creations. Best of luck and i am sorry if i have come across as some sort of buzzkill but forewarned is often forearmed. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) -ronhalling-

Thanks for that info.
I'm not doing it to earn make a quick profit (or even a profit), just as a challenge, as I've never bred reptiles, and these seem to be a good starter. I am from the UK, but find this site full of info, and helpful people helping others (unlike UK forums where you ask a question, and the response is use the search, google or offer advice when they don't know what they are talking about).
I do not know why, but spotted pythons aren't that common over here. If I was to breed them, a couple of shops near me have already said they want some, simply because they are not something they can easily get their hands on. If I have to keep some, so be it.
I wanted to try something that I have experience in keeping, and something not that everyone else is doing over here (ball, carpets, hognose and cornsnakes)

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

I definitely agree with you - market is not so great for Ants unless you've got some exotic mutation, but even then you must be prepared to keep ALL the young, if need be. If you must sell, know that there will be many more reputable breeders out there crowding the market. I love Spotteds, and have no problem with you breeding them, but it's best just to breed as a hobbyist and get ready to keep most if not all of the babies.

I realise it's not the ideal situation but the local pet stores up (and I'm sure everywhere else) here will purchase anything and everything (obviously for a slashed price which they then mark up 400%) but just say hypothetically that I decided to get another spotted and another stimmie and have a breeding pair of each, (which I most likely won't) and breed them season in season out, I could offload 2-3 month old pythons to pet stores up here no probs at all... I'd never get stuck and have to keep entire clutches of anything... Why would I do that?? Simply, because I could... You would be surprised at how many people would rather just walk into a local pet store where they know the staff well and have been dealing with for a few years to buy a snake or any reptile rather than contacting a bunch of random people they've never met before and hearing their sales pitch... "yeah I'm a reputable breeder, the best in the industry, been doing this for 15 years", etc etc much like your typical car salesman's pitch, "yeah she's got a full logbook service history, only had one lady owner who took her out on Sunday's." I bought both my Spotted python ($120) and my Stimson's ($240) from my local pet store... Did I get ripped off?? No idea, don't even know what the going rate for these particular animals are... I just wanted them both, because of wanted a specimen of each species for quite some time now... both these snakes were supplied to the store with shedding and feeding record cards via a breeder from just outside the city, I don't know the bloke's name or anything about him, the store gave me a card with his number on it if I needed to or wanted to know anything, but I've been dealing with this store for 15 years... I guess what I'm saying is, if a bunch of newby hobbyists all started randomly breeding their spotted's, I don't think it would be them who suffered, it would be the reputable breeders who aren't dumping their babies at pet stores for reduced prices who would be stuck holding onto all their babies because let's face it, people these days aren't seriously all that smart or patient, they're not going to care, they will just buy what they see on the day without doing a whole lot of research etc. The average Joe isn't going to know the difference between the Country's best spotted python breeder's clutch or the bloke down the road who just bred his first clutch of spotted's ever and sold them to the pet store.

Do you know how many people walk into pet stores in Australia every single day and buy hatchling turtles from backyard breeders that have no genetic integrity whatsoever?? Murray X krefftii X signata sold as Macleays, etc... They simply would never ever know, until it grew to the size of dinner plate in 18 months... The whole show is a S**t fight but it's the way it is, everyone on this site is very well informed and passionate about their pythons and snakes and in my short time on here I can already see there's quite a few people that have been breeding various species for quite some time and have a lot of knowledge and experience but unless the customer is on the same page as you guys, the same passion, enthusiasm, dedication, commitment, they're simply not going to care period about how good you are or say you are and what quality your animals are, they will happily buy something that looks to them exactly the same for $50 less from the local pet store and that unfortunately accounts for probably 75% of the general population, maybe more.

 

[ronhalling]

Thanks for that info.
I'm not doing it to earn make a quick profit (or even a profit), just as a challenge, as I've never bred reptiles, and these seem to be a good starter. I am from the UK, but find this site full of info, and helpful people helping others (unlike UK forums where you ask a question, and the response is use the search, google or offer advice when they don't know what they are talking about).
I do not know why, but spotted pythons aren't that common over here. If I was to breed them, a couple of shops near me have already said they want some, simply because they are not something they can easily get their hands on. If I have to keep some, so be it.
I wanted to try something that I have experience in keeping, and something not that everyone else is doing over here (ball, carpets, hognose and cornsnakes)

Ahhhh, well that is a Snake of a completely different color, i did not realize you were not in Oz, so completely disregard what i said about the saturation of species. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) -ronhalling-

 

[cheeky monkey]

I've just weighed my 3, the adult female is 725g, the male is 287g, and the other female is 264g, which puts her out of the equation. Just concerned about the difference in the male and the other female

 

[SpottedPythons]

If they're similar in general size, they will not eat each other. At least with a proper cooling period, the female should not be foody towards the male. Try getting pictures of the two together for comparison? If you know how to (try searching online) you could check for follicular growth in the female. In generally, if there is follicular growth the female will usually get into breeding mode if there is a male. For males, smaller mass is not as important because they can still produce sperm.