Smallest female successfully bred?

[JTrott]

If you just got these snakes, adn they were skinny, I would not breed them at all....no matter the weight......at least til next year. Let their systems come back......whats the hurry.....

Just my $.02

Jason

[Zombie]

So just out of pure curiosity, what was the smallest female that anyone here has successfully bred? Just curious...


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[JTrott]

Smallest female I have ever bred is 1750.......smallest female I have ever heard of lay eggs......850.

Jason

[MarkS]

Sorry, the previous pictures I posted were NOT my smallest female to lay eggs, she was my second smallest. I went through my pictures again and found one even smaller. Here she is.

Picture of her on her eggs.

Weight After Laying

The eggs.

[Zombie]

Sorry, the previous pictures I posted were NOT my smallest female to lay eggs, she was my second smallest. I went through my pictures again and found one even smaller. Here she is.

Picture of her on her eggs.

Weight After Laying

The eggs.

How much did she weigh before breeding?

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[MarkS]

I don't remember. These pics are from 4 years ago.

[Anatopism]

Our smallest girl was about 1400-1500 just before laying and she laid 5 eggs. After laying she was at about 900g. The eggs were ugly when they came out, wrinkly and discolored in spots. We are fighting to keep them humid enough knowing they came out of her wrinkly. One has started to die but we can't seperate from the others just yet bc of how they are attached. Not due to hatch for another month and a couple days... so fingers crossed for the others. From what I have read, the egg problems may be related to calcium deficiency in the mother, so I wonder if it wasn't because her smaller size and producing 5 eggs. I haven't noticed anything wrong with her otherwise and she has started putting weight back on very quickly. We will see how the babies turn out, but I don't know her breeding history before coming to us or if this is her first clutch. May add calcium supplement to her diet in the future.

I certainly don't think it is just related to size, but more her specifically, as we have had other girls the same size approximately with perfect eggs.

[loonunit]

So I've been thinking about this thread a lot. First off: I don't think breeding those 1500+ gram girls you've gotten up to size is a problem.

But on the topic of 800-1000 gram females, unless they're older (4+ years) and it's very clear that they're well-fed and just smaller animals.... I simply wouldn't bother breeding them? Even if they lock, I wouldn't expect a younger animal of that size to ovulate. Even if she ovulated, I would expect either small eggs or a small clutch (1-4 eggs), probably both. And then they have to recover their breeding weight. Whereas waiting gives them an extra year of growth, and maybe I'd get a clutch of 5-8 eggs?

That's part of why I want to give my 2007 a year off after this season? She's het lavender, and I'm breeding her to another het lavender. She laid 5 eggs last year, and one of them was a visual lavender albino. She's got 4 follicles brewing up this year. It's only 1 in 4 chance per egg, right? So I kind of wish I'd given her the year off THIS season, and given her a chance to put on some real weight and make a nice big clutch instead.

[RobNJ]

If you just got these snakes, adn they were skinny, I would not breed them at all....no matter the weight......at least til next year. Let their systems come back......whats the hurry.....

Just my $.02

Jason

Best advice right there...no sense in rushing them, especially if they come from uncertain conditions.

But on the topic of 800-1000 gram females, unless they're older (4+ years) and it's very clear that they're well-fed and just smaller animals.... I simply wouldn't bother breeding them? Even if they lock, I wouldn't expect a younger animal of that size to ovulate. Even if she ovulated, I would expect either small eggs or a small clutch (1-4 eggs), probably both. And then they have to recover their breeding weight. Whereas waiting gives them an extra year of growth, and maybe I'd get a clutch of 5-8 eggs?

When I bred my 1,200 gram girl that was over 3 years old, I was thinking along the lines of her just being a smaller snake. After breeding, her appetite seemingly increase 5 fold, she had no problem putting weight back on, and has even far surpassed what I would have imagined. She's not a BIG girl yet, but bigger than I thought she would be by this time, and well on her way to laying for the second year straight.

[RideRed12]

Great advice, and I had no intentions of breeding them all. I just wanted to possibly pair one or two of the pastels. The only reason I wanted to try now is because we planned to move across the country in early may of next year. This means I've already planned on taking next season off. I have some projects that I'm a little ancy about is all, but with all that being said I think I will wait.

After all you guys know best, experience and wisdom are everything.