breeding questions

[Robbo]

hi guys
i am hoping to breed a pair of coastals this year and want to find out as much as i can about cooloing , breeding and incubation
what i have so far is
- stop feeding in april
- cool down during may temp ?
- start warming in august to 28 deg
- put pair together keeping an eye on them to see if either stress
- keep an eye out for mating
- keep an eye out for ovulation belly up to heat source
- female lay eggs at about ? days
- have incubator set to 30 deg ?
- candle eggs after they are layed to see wich ones are viable looking for veins and embryo
- place good eggs embryo up into airtight container containing vermiculite mixed with water ( add water till damp then squeeze out as much as you can )
- place suss eggs into another airtight container containing vermiculte mix so if they go bad they wont spoil the good eggs
- keep an eye on eggs in incubator making sure they dont swell to much or dent to much
- wait till eggs hatch ? days
- eggs will dent about a week before hatching
- look for pipping of eggs

so can anybody fill in the blanks for me , add any comments suggest any reading material

thanks
shane

[serpenttongue]

With coastals i start cooling in mid May. Day temps are about 24'C and night temps are about 16-18'C. I start bringing them back to summer temps in early/mid Sep. At this time i may choose to feed both adults and then the following week they are introduced for one week. They are then seperated for a week and then re-introduced for a week, regardless of whether or not i have seen any mating. This is continued until late Oct/early Nov when they are seperated permanently. Then i just keep an eye on the female to see if she lays belly-up and eventually becomes swollen in the last 3rd of her body. I rarely look for signs of mid-body swelling, but it usually occurs in late Oct and lasts about a day.

If she does lay eggs the infertiles are removed. I never candle eggs, i just go on gut instinct. Good eggs are placed in a sealed container of 200g Vermiculite/190ml water by weight and incubated at 29-30'C. Incubation is usually 55-60 days, eggs usually dent 2 weeks before babies hatch.

[Robbo]

thanks serpenttongue
fills in a few gaps from the books i have been reading
especially the temps

[Robbo]

anybody else have any comments / suggestions
also is it roughly the same for all pythons eg. cildrens , bhp , womas

[da_donkey]

Hi robbo,

Sounds like you'll do just fine, i keep a pair together all year round and dont do anything special for breeding and they go off like clockwork.
If your male is a little root rat you cant go wrong

Good luck with it