Breeding Trials of BHP (Het for Axanthic) 2010

[James_Scott]

This being my first attempt at breeding pythons, I like to document everything to learn what to do or what not to do. There is some information out there on how to breed pythons but not a lot on what to expect to see when you do put your snakes together.
This is what I found so far and thought it may be interesting to some of the newbies.



Breeding Trials of BHP (Het for Axanthic)
Age: 16 months
Length: 6 feet
Last feed: 9/04/10
Temperature adjustment for breeding began: 2/05/10 Daytime hot spot 40C for 8 hours only. No night time heat supplied.
Introductions: 9/5/10
Results of first introduction.
12 noon: BHPs put together. Male excretes small amount of liquid in female’s enclosure.


1pm: Male explores enclosure with little to no interest in female. Female remained tightly coiled under paper, with no interest in male.

2pm: Female releases coils and male lays over female.
2:30pm: Male tickles sides of female with its tale and again moves over female. Female uncoils and goes into hide. Female excretes small amount of liquid at hide entrance, with possible caudal luring with tail which has the desired effect and attracts male to the hide. Male enters hide with female.
3pm: Male leaves hide and moves to heat source.
3:30pm: Female also moves to heat source.
5pm: Heat off
6pm: Male moves into hide while female remains under heat source.
9pm: Female has not moved. Hot end 24C, Cool end 23C. Male moves from hide to hot end and exploring enclosure.
10.30pm: Both male and female laying next to each other at warm end of the enclosure under the paper.
10/05/10
2am: Room temp 22C
7.30am: Room temp 21C. Pair is copulating!
Note: it is unknown at this point if the female will ovulate or if the male is producing viable sperm.

 

[AM Pythons]

have i got it right? 16 months old bhp's?

 

[AM Pythons]

i thought there was a 'rule' bhp breeders use 4kg,4yo the 4x4 rule..?

 

[No-two]

What are the weights on the two? 16 months is a fair effort allyhough I wouldn't be counting my chickens just yet good luck though they've been done at 18months before so it's not impossible

 

[Peterwookie]

I have a 16 month old Pair maby I sould have a go As Well

 

[beeman]

There is no mention of the weights of the pythons at that age.

 

[James_Scott]

I haven't weighed them, but they are as thick as my forearm and six feet long. I was dubious about putting them together, however a few people said to try it and see what happens, so I gave it a go. I figured by the time they lay a clutch they would be 18months old.

 

[No-two]

They will be older than 18months... I'd be interested in hearing weights... I grew some bhps extreamly fast last year to see just how big I could get them in 12 months needless to sag they were huge female was just over 3kgs at about 14months of age, bhps will grow very fast if given the food.

 

[James_Scott]

Just so we are clear, this is not a how to thread.. it is purely a documentation of reactions during the mating process. I hope it helps us to understand the behaviour of courting BHPs. I would be interested to see if anybody else has had the small excretion prior to mating and the caudal luring as well. I'm not sure if the excretion of liquid is a release of pheromones or just a waste issue.

 

[kupper]

Well done mate .... I for one have my fingers crossed for you

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

Yes, keep us posted James.
Your snakes certainly seem big enough to breed.

 

[AUSHERP]

do you have to cool bhp's? i have a 5 month old pair that i hope to breed in the next couple of years. how is it that you are doing it in may?

 

[James_Scott]

BHPs are early to breed and will usually lay a clutch in September.

 

[Helikaon]

Nice, you are much better then me at making recordings its good to see. I see most of the matings from my ones early in the morning to. good luck, hopefully you'll have eggs in the near future

 

[Ewan]

Hi James. Good luck breeding your BHPs and I hope this helps.

I paired mine up 5 days ago. Fortunately for the last 3 days I have been home watching them. I paired them late in the afternoon. Both the female and male urinated within the first hour. Just after the lights went off at 5pm the male began to seek the female. He was flicking his spurs on the female and eventually they lined up their vents. Next time I checked up on them was 6:45pm they were hooked up. Since then mating seems to be taking place from just after lights off until lights on the next morning. They bask in the morning then hook up again during the day. They will bask again before lights turn off then hook up again at night. They have been mating everyday since. Most of the mating is occurring in private under the newspaper sheets. They are yet to use the hide provided. This is not unusual however as they never have used hides. Long hot days were provided during summer and gradually reduced day length into winter. Day temps were 35degrees plus. Day temps have now been reduced to 32degrees max.

BHP Female is QLD 4.2 Kg 3.5 years old. Male is NT 3.2kg 3.5 years old. These BHPs were paired last year at F=3kg, M=2.4kg. Male certainly was interested female was non receptive. No matings were observed.

 

[AM Pythons]

nice ewan..

 

[Southside Morelia]

Good Info Guys on differing experiences.....

 

[wokka]

Ewan, I doubt that temperatures in Newcastle have got low enough to cool BHPs yet. I notice on the TV weather tonight Alice Springs is hitting 6C at night whilst Newy is more like 16C. I dont know if your snakes are inside , but if so it probably a bit higher than 16C most of the time in the house. Remember that blackheads are a thick snake and so need to be at lower temperatures for a while to overcome their thermal mass.

 

[Ewan]

You are right Wokka. Temps inside my reptile enclosures haven't reached much below 18 degrees yet.

Are you saying that you don't pair your BHPs until later during winter in Newcastle? Also what do you believe is the target cooling temp for BHPs? Say it is reaching 6 degrees in Alice Springs, what do you think the BHPs body temperature would drop to?

Most documentation I have read says breeding trials begin in May/June and ending by July's end. Is there problems with starting them during the early end of the scale?

Thanks for your input Wokka.

 

[Jay84]

Great info guys. Info like this answers most of the small questions that always get glossed over until you are familiar with the occurences from a couple of seasons experience.