Pastel Breeding 2005

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In early November 2004 I started cooling down my Ball Pythons. My Female Pastel Jungle was around 1700 grams in weight and ready to breed. Since I had an incredible Male Pastel Jungle I wanted to try to produce a Super Pastel with them. Unfortunately my Male Pastel Jungle was not ready to breed and every time I looked in on them to see how thing were progressing I saw this.

As you can see there is certainly not a real look of confidence on his part. (He's the sheepish looking one on the right.) LOL

Through out the month of December I kept on putting him in with her but nothing ever happened. My Graziani line Cinnamon Pastel was breeding like crazy so not wanting to lose a year with the Female Pastel Jungle I decided to breed him to her. I figured the worst-case scenario would be I would produce some Pastel Jungles, or maybe some Cinnamons and if I was really lucky maybe a Pewter Pastel. Hey, things could be a lot worse right? The first night I put my Male Graziani line Cinnamon Pastel in with her here is what I saw.

Here is another picture of her locked up with my Graziani line Cinnamon Pastel.

Here is one more.

I never gave up hope of getting my Pastel Jungle Male going so I would alternate breeding the Cinnamon and the Pastel Jungle Males with her. Finally in early January I saw this.

Here is another picture of her locked up with my Pastel Jungle Male.

Here is one more.

Once the Pastel Jungle Male got going I never used the Cinnamon Pastel Male again. I was still determined to try to produce a Super Pastel but if some how she was retaining sperm from the Cinnamon Pastel, so be it.
I have read numerous times about Female Ball Pythons "Laying Cold" but was not really sure what it meant. On 2/10/05 I was getting ready to offer some food to those who where still eating and I noticed this.

Here is another picture of her laying cold around her water bowl.

In Talking with Greg Graziani about what to look for as signals to stop breeding the Males to the Females he mentioned that the Females will look like they just ate a huge meal (even though they haven’t been fed), to signal ovulation. I am hopping this is that look.

Egg Laying

Here is the Female coiled around her eggs with one still outside the coil.

Here is the Female coiled around the eggs with one peaking through.

Here are the eggs after uncoiling the Female with the one egg still outside. It seams to look healthy though.

Here is the weight of the whole clutch.

Here are the eggs in the incubation medium.

Here are the eggs with the cover on the container.

Boy did she lose weight; she was over 1800 grams before her first breeding.

To Be Continued, (Hopefully with pictures of baby Ball Pythons).

Updated - June 14, 2005

Eggs Hatching

This morning on day 55 of incubation I checked on the eggs and was greeted by three little heads sticking out. I cut larger openings to the already piped eggs and cut open the remaining eggs. Here is a picture of them on the first day of hatching. All seven eggs had healthy baby Ball Pythons in them, including the egg the Female had left out of the coil.

This being my first ever clutch of Ball Pythons and since I had had two different Males breed the Pastel Female I wanted to verify what was produced. I called Greg Graziani after I had sent him the above picture. he told me that I was the proud owner of a Super Pastel, two Pastels, and four normal.
Below is a picture of the Super Pastel on the left, and the two Pastels on the right.

Below is a picture of just the Super Pastel. I can’t wait to see what it looks like out of the egg. LOL

As soon as the babies emerge from the eggs I will take new pictures of all of them.

Updated - June 15, 2005

This morning on day 56 of incubation the first one had left the egg.

Here is an updated picture of the Super Pastel and normal Pastels.

Here is a picture of the first one out of the egg after I cleaned it up a bit. I know it's just a normal but it looks great to me. LOL

Here is a picture of the second one out of the egg after I cleaned it up a bit. This one is no normal. LOL

Here is another picture of it. I can't wait to see what it looks like after it has shed.

Updated - June 16, 2005

This morning on day 57 of incubation the rest of them were out of the egg except the one egg that was out of the Females coil. It was part of the way out but still had the egg sack attached so I left in the container.

Here is a Picture of the first Pastel out of the egg.

Here is another picture of the first Pastel.

Here is a Picture of the second Pastel out of the egg.

Here is another picture of the second Pastel.

Updated - June 17, 2005

This morning on day 58 of incubation the last one came out. Here is a picture of the last one.

Here is the Super Pastel after it has Shed.

Here is another shot of the Super.

Here is the second one of the Pastel's after it has Shed.

Here is another shot of the second Pastel.

Here is one of the first Pastel after it has shed. What is weird about this one is it ate two pinky rats before it shed, and didn’t shed for the first time until 7/11/05.

Here is another shot of the first Pastel.

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