As each new breeding season passes, it is amazing to watch the non-stop evolution of new ball python morphs unfold. With over 50 base mutations to choose as a starter palette, we are scratching the surface of what is possible with these beautiful snakes. As new people enter this wonderful hobby each year, sooner or later they are driven to recreate one of these beautiful forms of living art.
Each year we are regularly contacted by such people who are new to ball pythons and wish to breed them. New ball python hobbyists keep telling us that breeders hold back secrets, but that is contrary to the countless informative sources available in books and on the web. The common thread among successful ball python breeders is length of time in the hobby; which equals experience. There is no substitute for experience and this first starts by observing and keeping records of your snakes, and records of the environmental variables that you re-create for it. This data will form a foundation for an understanding of your collections needs in all its various natural life cycles. The data that you collect yourself from the environment you raise your snakes is far more valuable than the data recorded in another snake room.
There is no absolute method of breeding ball pythons as too many variables influence the lives and reproductive behaviour of these snakes in captivity. Despite where a ball python is raised in this continent, the effects of seasonal climates and the temperature dynamics of the snake’s captive environment will influence its reproductive behaviour.
The key to repeated breeding success comes to those breeders who observe, document and understand all the factors that influenced it in the environment they raised their snakes in. In our opinion, breeding ball pythons will always be an art rather than an exact science. We will always be students of the serpent, fueled by visions of baby ball pythons pipping each successive season.
