For this post, we want to give a basic run down of how we breed our Blood and Short-Tailed Pythons. There is not a one size fits all way to do this. Depending on the region in the country you are in, how you house your animals, where they are housed, and the way each animal naturally cycles will make your strategy different.
Here at our facility in central South Carolina we offer basking sites for all our animals from babies to adults. The building also has two large windows which let in natural light. October is when we being to cool our animals down. This is the time of year that SC experiences tropical depressions and shorter days, triggering our animals to begin the cycling for breeding. Our over all basking spot temperatures are dropped from 86-82 degrees on a 6 hour time frame. It is not a drastic drop in temperature, but the overall ambient temperature in the building also beings to decrease this time of year.
Animals are introduced during storm fronts from Oct-Jan. We continue to feed both males and females during this time, but reduce the overall size of the meals. Generally feeding only medium rats during this time. Males are introduced into the females enclosures on a three day rotation (or until breeding activity stops). Then they are separated until the next weather system rolls in.
Copulation (this process can last for hours)
We usually see females begin ovulating in January and this goes on until March most years. Ovulation is when fertilization actually happens and this event is quite obvious with large swelling. This mid-body swelling generally lasts for 24 hours. (See picture below). Basking site temperatures are fully restored at the end of January.
T+ Yellow Albino ovulating
Once ovulation occurs the female will go into a shed cycle. After this shed, known as the post ovulation shed, eggs are laid within 30-45 days. We offer a nest box for gravid females using slightly damp sphagnum moss or coco fiber. Some females will utilize this area to lay, others lay underneath their substrate, and others lay on top of their substrate, we just like to give them the option. After oviposition (egg laying) is done, the eggs are gently removed from the female and placed in the incubator.
Zig Zag morph on eggs in a nest box
We use perlite as an incubation box medium. The perlite is mixed with water, about a 2-1 ratio of perlite to water and the eggs are placed directly on the substrate. Then the containers are moved into the incubator. Eggs take around 60 days to pip and a few more days to fully emerge from the eggs. Once they absorb all their yolk and crawl out, we set them up individually and offer their first meals at two weeks old. One of the more interesting things about baby Blood and Short-Tailed Pythons is they do not have their first shed for a few months, unlike other snake species that shed right away or within the first week.
T- Lavender Albino emerging from its egg
Hope you will find this crash course helpful as you start on the journey of producing your own little pythons. As always, please feel free to email us with any questions you may have.