Welcome to our Iron Balls journal, here we will update you on what is going on here at Iron Balls.
Check back regularly to get the latest....
8 February 2012
Had a pretty disappointing breeding season here. Only managed to get one clutch from 3 attempts at breeding, guess the ladies did not want to play ball...lol
Not all doom and gloom though. I did manage to hatch out a male Axanthic, 2 male Het Axanthics and a female Het Axanthic. I have also decided to sell off a couple of normal females and a normal male that do not fit into my future breeding plans. See what is available here
Breeding will once again start in a few months time. I will be hoping for the following
Normals
Spiders
Pastels
Bumblebees
Pewters
Cinnamons
Axanthics
Het axanthics
Het Pieds
Spider Het Pieds
These are just some initial ideas, what actually happens may be totally different.....
1 June 2011
Breeding is underway here at Ironballs. So far I have had locks that should produce Spiders, Normal, Axanthics and Het Axanthics....I may also be producing Pastels and Bumblebees but lets just wait and see what happens there.
I should also be receiving a new rack system shortly that I helped design. So far it is looking awesome, check back shortly for more info. Once tested and approved they will be available from Ironballs.
15th May 2011
I attended the SOS expo yesterday and must say there was some really awesome animals on display if you are into Ball Pythons. I will shortly update my gallery with a few pics that I took.
I also managed to get my hands on a Hypomelanistic male, he will compliment my Het-
My Spider has been back in action so it look like there will be more Spider available at the end of the year. Unfortunately I have had no locks from my other females but the season is still young so lets see.
22 April 2011
I uploaded a video of how we assist feed a ball python. The subject was my female Piebald who recently went to the vet for a checkup as she had not eaten for a number of months. You can check out my Youtube video.
17 April 2011
Had my first lock of the season. My Spider male hooked up with my normal female.
15 April 2011
I have uploaded the latest Iron Balls Newsletter, click on the link on the left to view the PDF. It details what I have available, new additions, and also breeding plans for this season.
14 January 2011
Eggs Hatched!!!!
2 x Normals and two Spiders, male and female of each.... Those are dead-
16 November 2010
Eggs Laid!!!!
I opened up the female’s tub to find her tightly wrapped around 4 beautiful eggs.... Here’s hoping for all Spiders but the odds say it should be half Normals and half Spiders. I put them into the incubator.....
9 May 2010
Been a pretty quiet few months here at Ironballs....
I collected my latest snakes a month or two back, a male Cinnamon and a female Butter. The Cinnamon is a very pretty little male and I’ll be planning to use him initially to make Pewters with my female Pastel next year.
The Butter is gorgeous, with awesome toffee colouring and crazy appetite. If I can get my hands on a male Mojave next year then the plan would be to breed it to the Butter to go for Blue Eyed Leucistics...
Also got the breeding ball going for my first breeding attempt. Since March I have been gradually dropping the temperatures in my snake room to simulate the coming of autumn. My ambient temps went from approx 28C down to about 24C. Theoretically this encourages breeding behaviour in males and females.
So on the 14th April 2010 I introduced my Spider male to my Normal female. The female weighs 1500g which is the minimum breeding weight for a female, in my opinion.
My plan was to leave the Spider male with the female for 3 days or until I see copulation.
For the first 24 hours after introducing there was no action. But when I checked
on them on day 2 I found the Spider doing the business. I am not sure how long copulation
was but it was 8 hours minimum. Once they separated I returned the male to his enclosure.
Since then They have copulated on two more occasions and I will be re-
Note how the male’s tail is curled under the females. I was not certain at first if it was a confirmed copulation, but once they had moved I was able to confirm that he had entered her.
So fingers crossed that I get eggs from this female, any eggs that are laid and hatch have a 50% chance of being a Spider or 50% chance of being a Normal.
3 January 2010
Been a while since my last update..... So....
I have now moved and have got a new snake room up and running, lots more space means more snakes and more room to work in.....
I have also taken delivery of my first new addition of 2010. Now this girl came out of the blue, I was made an offer I could not refuse. So to compliment my Het Pied male and now have a Piebald female!
Next on my collection list is a Butter female and a Cinnamon male, unfortunately I could not get a Pinstripe or Mojave, but they are on my list for the next season.....
5 September 2009
I have been doing a lot of research on feeding regimes and schedules. I have found
a few articles online that show the amount of fat that builds up on snakes on a weekly
feeding schedule. In some circumstances feeding adult snakes every 7-
I have come to the conclusion that feeding adults once a week is overkill and we may be doing our balls more harm than good.
I believe that juvenile ball pythons should be fed every 7 days as they are at a stage in their lives when they are growing quickly and they need the food. I feel that once they reach adulthood feeding should be cut back in order that growth rate is still positive but much slower, this would cause less fat to be built up.
In the wild ball pythons feed on an erratic basis, they may get a meal every few days for a few weeks but then they may not eat for months. We are aware that ball pythons can go on hunger strikes, I am leaning towards the idea that hunger strikes are actually the ball telling us that it does not want any more food.
Just some food for thought, some breeders say that they feed their balls as much as possible to get them up to weight for breeding. Problem is that overfeeding can take years to have a negative impact on a ball. We must remember that these snake should live upwards of 30 years, and the hobby has not been in the mainstream for much more than 10 years.
Are we sitting on a ball python obesity time-
1 August 2009
Did a great feeding session last night after giving my balls a 2 week break from feeding. We are in winter here in South Africa and during the cooler months feeding tends to slow a little. Anyways, had 100% success with even my my finicky eaters having a meal.
My new Het Ghost and Het Pied took their first meals for me with no problems which I am pleased about.
I was having a look at ball-
22 July 2009
The new additions are settling in nicely. Will not try feeding them this week, but will make a first attempt next week.
Also we have been out and about looking for a new house, we are keeping an eye out for a place that has the potential for a reasonable herp room in which I can base my collection.
18 July 2009
Just made 2 new acquisitions to my collection today. A male 100% Het Pied and a male 100% Het Ghost. The het pied is awesome and is a ringer to boot! Will now have to look at getting a female pied or het pied to pair up with him in the future... Lets see how it goes
At least now I’ve got my foot in the door to start producing pieds and ghosts.... I’ll be adding them to my collection page shortly
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