We were lucky enough to start off the year early with baby ball pythons hatching and it seems that there has been no time to wind down since. Summer time has never one of my favourite times of year as it is difficult to manage my time.  On top of all this, the responsibilities of maintaining a large collection increases during breeding time.

It has been a strange year for most breeders we have spoken to this year. Most are running later than usual. Every week we eagerly monitor the incubator for new arrivals.  In August, our late females are coiled perfectly on their hot spots, waiting to lay eggs. I  just love it when I can hatch ball pythons every month of the season into the fall;  it keeps the level of excitement going.

Some of Our 2010 Additions

This is the time of year when the adult females have a savage food response. We make sure that there are ample rats in our grow-up bins as these females are entering into what we anticipate to be our best breeding season yet. Being a busy and restless summer, we are thankful for how the season has progressed. We are pleased with the quality of the animals we produced, and are ever appreciative of our wonderful customers — breeders and new hobbyists alike.

2010 Canadian Reptile Breeder’s Expo

We hope to see everyone at the 2nd annual Canadian Reptiles Breeders Expo in September.  We will be vending once again and are always excited to showcase our ball pythons and witness the greatest collection of Canadian captive-bred reptiles assembled under one roof. See you there.

As we cruise through the internet forums, we are witnessing a great start to the 2010 season with some nice early clutches. Our breeding season seems to parallel last year, with the incubator firing up in March and filling up with clutches as the season progress. Last year we hatched ball pythons from May to October, spreading out the excitement.

As we approach April, we start deviating from our initial breeding plan for many reasons including,

• animals showing no interest in breeding,
• young morph males showing interest in late season breeding,
• and late season follicle growth by new females.

In the following picture, a four year old Het-Albino girl, blesses us with her first clutch ever and our second clutch of the 2010 season.  Patience will always reap rewards when breeding ball pythons. She was bred by a male albino and we are hoping for good hatching odds. We maintain 4 different lines of albino ball pythons for genetic integrity.

This next image illustrates a deviation from our breeding plan. We were planning this Desert crossed with a Cinnamon breeding for the 2011 season, but our 2008 Cinna-bee girl has turned the feast light on and is developing massive follicles. We hope for viable eggs as we expect that a Desert / Cinna-bee cross will be a stunning surprise.

Deep into the 2010 ball python breeding season, those male ball pythons continue to romance the ladies. Don’t forget that on  February 14, to give your ball pythons a little less attention and focus  on romancing that special someone in your life.  It will lessen your troubles and keep you in their good books.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Season’s greetings and a safe Christmas season from all of us at Ball Python Addiction.  May the new year bring you the ball python of your dreams.

Don’ t forget to drop by and say hello as we will be attending the Canadian Reptile Breeders Expo this weekend. The show is located at the International Centre – Hall 4A (6900 Airport Road, Mississauga).