Ball Python Care Guide

Pairing, Breeding, and Egg Management

First and Foremost:

Ask yourself: Why are you breeding Ball Pythons? Are you hoping to deepen your understanding of their biology? Do you aim to become a hobby breeder, making a few dollars to support your curiosity? Are you considering becoming a mid-level breeder to supplement your annual income, or perhaps going full-time as a business owner to cover all your expenses?

It's okay if you’re unsure where you want to land, but breeding Ball Pythons without a clear plan is a fool’s errand. You should never breed simply for the sake of breeding. Ethical breeding involves understanding the market for animal sales, taking personal responsibility to honor the animals’ well-being, and prioritizing husbandry and health over profit.

Currently, there are well over 35,000 Ball Pythons listed for sale on the internet, which likely means there are at least ten times that many available through local and regional shows. I urge you to be mindful and purposeful in your decisions. Thoughtful, ethical breeding contributes to the health of the hobby and the well-being of the animals we care for.

Breeding and Egg Incubation:

Preparing: Always remember, Ball Pythons are living creatures and therefore, expect variation in breeding success. Breeding Ball Pythons requires careful preparation, timing, and attention to the health of the snakes. Both male and female ball pythons must reach appropriate size and maturity before breeding. Males should weigh at least 700 grams and be around 18 months old, while females should weigh a minimum of 1,500 grams and be at least 3 years old. Attempting to breed younger or underweight snakes can lead to health complications, particularly for the female. We know of many keepers that have paired younger males with success, and besides a failed pairing event for the season, trying a male earlier is not an unsafe practice. However, rushing females to breed is a common mistake we see. Aggressively feeding females so that they gain as much weight as quickly as possible (e.g. "power feeding") is not healthy and should not be done. Generally speaking, we do not recommend attempting to breed first time females that are under 1,500 grams, no matter the scenario. It is simply not worth the risk of getting egg bound in which eggs cannot be successfully laid.

Pairing and Breeding: The breeding season for ball pythons typically aligns with their natural cycle in the wild, occurring between late fall and early spring (November through April; main months being January-March). You can choose to simulate this in captivity but ball pythons will breed at any point in the year. To simulate their natural cycle, some keepers use a technique called "cooling" or "brumation," gradually reducing the night temperatures in the enclosure by 5–10°F for 6–8 weeks while maintaining normal daytime temperatures. During this period, feeding is reduced or stopped for the male to mimic natural conditions, while females should be fed heavily before the breeding season to ensure they have adequate energy reserves. We do not change the temperatures of our breeding Ball Python cages (called "temperature cycling").

In terms of how we breed our Ball Pythons, we start heavily feeding (weekly feeding) the females in September and plan for pairing the males and females for the first time on Halloween (Oct 31st). We feed our males bi-weekly all year, so long as they maintain their body weight through the breeding season. This aligns with our brumation of our Colubrid snakes which is why we chose this time frame for us but you can choose any schedule that works for you. We typically assign one male to 3 females, sometimes more (our largest group of females has been 5). We pair a male with a female and keep them together for 5 days, typically Monday-Friday. We separate Friday evenings, feed on Saturday, and repair the male with a new female on the following Monday. This gives males some rest and separates the breeding from the feeding. We never feed multiple animals within the same cage. As long as the male continues to eat, and does not look like he is losing weight, we continue to pair him with his assigned females. It is not uncommon for males to be so focused on breeding that they stop feeding. So long as they maintain their weight, we will continue to pair the males with females but the males expend considerable energy and can lose weight. If this occurs, we stop pairing that male until his begins feeding and putting weight back on. Assuming feeding continues, we find it easier, with the quantity of animals that we have, to continue to pair males with females until February-March.

Many people will wait to pair Ball Pythons together based on the follicle size within the female. To measure this often requires an ultrasound machine and while many large-scale breeders swear by these, nature has worked for millions of years without them. Should you choose to explore the use of an ultrasound machine, it benefits you by reducing the time of pairings between snakes and at least anecdotally, people state that it improves the successful pairings that they try. We have not seen any systematic evidence to convince us that this is necessary. Regardless of how you decide to pair your snakes, you are then looking for a "lock" which involves the intertwining of their tails together. Seeing a lock is not a guarantee of breeding success and not seeing one is not a guaranteed failure. After a successful copulation, the female will undergo ovulation, a noticeable event marked by swelling in the midsection as eggs develop. This typically occurs 2–3 weeks after the final pairing. Ovulation is followed by a pre-lay shed, which happens approximately 14–20 days after ovulation.

Egg Laying and Incubation: Females lay clutches of 4–10 eggs approximately 30–50 days after ovulation. Our average number of eggs laid per female from the last few years is 7 but expecting 5-6 is closer to the typical clutch size. Provide a secure nesting box with moist sphagnum moss or similar substrate to encourage egg laying. For Ball Pythons housed in darker enclosures, this may not be necessary. Once the female lays her eggs, carefully remove them from the enclosure, keeping them in their original orientation to avoid disrupting the developing embryos. After the eggs have been safely processed, we highly suggest bathing the female in a water bath with mild Dawn dish soap to remove the smell of her eggs. We find that this improves her likelihood of returning back to feeding.

Place the eggs in an incubator set to 88–90°F (31–32°C) with a relative humidity of 90–100%. Use a moist medium such as vermiculite or perlite, mixed with water in a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio by weight, to maintain humidity. Position the eggs slightly embedded in the medium to prevent rolling. Check the incubator regularly to ensure consistent temperature and humidity levels, as fluctuations can harm developing embryos. The eggs typically hatch in 55–65 days. Toward the end of incubation, you may notice the eggs dent slightly, which is a normal sign of hatching readiness. It is likely that you will need to add more water into the mixture once or twice as water naturally evaporates. It is also normal that you can lose eggs along the incubation process. If moldy eggs can be removed, do so. If eggs are stuck together and you feel comfortable pulling them apart, we also suggest that. However, care should be taken not to harm or rupture neighboring eggs.

Once the eggs begin to pip (hatchlings cutting themselves out of the egg from the inside), we cut open all eggs from that clutch to make sure that each baby can get out of the egg. Without cutting eggs open (a harmless process), you risk some babies suffocating within the egg if they are unable to hatch on their own. Once the hatchlings emerge, they may stay in the egg for a day or two to absorb the remainder of their yolk sac. After they leave the eggs, place them in individual enclosures with appropriately sized hides and a water source. Do not attempt to feed hatchlings until they complete their first shed, which typically occurs within 7–10 days after hatching. Properly identifying and recording clutch genetics is essential if you are breeding for specific morphs.

"The Ball Python breeding guide was perfect for me as a first-time breeder! It explained the process and setup clearly, helping me succeed with my first clutch."

★★★★★

"An excellent resource with clear, ethical advice. It gave me the confidence to breed responsibly and improve my practices!"

★★★★★

"This guide is packed with helpful tips and market insights. A must-read for anyone serious about breeding Ball Pythons!"

★★★★