Breeding Statistics / Part IV

[muddoc]

It's that time of year again. This thread always seems to get alot of attention, and everyone always enjoys it so much. My quote from last year's post,"I am going to try and keep a running tally this year, so that the data will already be compiled once the last baby hatches", that I made two years ago, I still did not follow, however, I did manage to go dig up all of the data and put it together much earlier than I did last year (I guess I wasn't as lazy this year). I posted links to the previous year's postings, however, all of the data from all four years is included in this thread. Due to comments made in last years' thread, there are a few holes here and there, as it is starting to get to be too much data to collect everything, but some of this is still important and may be helpful to some.

Below is the link to the 06/07 year's thread, the 07/08 year's thread, and the 08/09 year's thread:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=53385

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=87360

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...stics-Part-III

Without further ado, here are the numbers (the first number is the 06/07 season, the second number is the 07/08 season, the third number is 08/09 and the last number is 09/10 season):

Total females in our breeding program: 40 / 71 / 94 / 123

Total females that copulated at least once: 35 / 68 / 84 / 122

Total females to lay eggs: 21 / 45 / 58 / 75

Breeding success rate: 53% / 63% / 62% / 62%

Total Slugs: 4 / 20 / 30 / 22

Total infertile eggs: 4 / 4 / 14 / 10

Total eggs that went bad during incubation: 12 / 18 / 13 / 15
Average Clutch Size: __ / __ / 5.7 eggs / 5.98 eggs (I didn't figure this out the first 2 seasons)

Total good eggs that went full term: 118 / 224 / 306 / 410

Total hatchlings: 118 / 221 / 282 / 394 (14 died in egg)(1 set of twins)

Total hatchlings that died: 0 / 2 / 2 / 3(all died within 1 week).

Final Sex Ratio: 55.64 / 130.91 / 133.149 / 206.188

As I stated in last year's thread, I didn't collect this data in 07/08, but I got some of it this past year.

Lightest Hatchling: 23.0 grams / __ / 24.0 grams / 36.9 (twins)

Heaviest Hatchling: 87.6 gram / __ / 92.6 / 85.8

There are too many hatchlings now to keep up with this. Sometimes data collection can impede the important stuff, but the data below was on a pretty good sample size, and I thought it may help someone, so I left it in here. This was from the 06/07 season.

Total Hatchling Weight: 6911.3 grams (we hatched 15.36 pounds of snakes)

Average Hatchling Weight: 60.1 grams


I hope someone could find this interesting, or at least, it can help someone plan for how there seasons will work for them in the future.

[Gloryhound]

Very interesting and thank you. This was our second year breeding and we lost a couple babies shortly after birth and were wondering if we did something wrong since it really isn't talked about much. One was born with its stomach hanging out the imbilical cord hole and the other was just dead 4 days after being moved to a hatchling tub. Our first year we only had 36 eggs of which all hatched and not a single one had any issues, which probably made this year a little more difficult to understand.

A couple of questions that maybe your experience can shed some light on if I did something wrong.
1. Have you ever had a hatchling totally refuse to eat and die 2 to 3 months later from starvation?
2. This was our first year with twins and we lost one, but the other is still hanging on. Is twin survival difficult at best?

Thanks again. I'll have to dig and see if I can produce as detailed records for our smaller breeding.

[muddoc]

Very interesting and thank you. This was our second year breeding and we lost a couple babies shortly after birth and were wondering if we did something wrong since it really isn't talked about much. One was born with its stomach hanging out the imbilical cord hole and the other was just dead 4 days after being moved to a hatchling tub. Our first year we only had 36 eggs of which all hatched and not a single one had any issues, which probably made this year a little more difficult to understand.

A couple of questions that maybe your experience can shed some light on if I did something wrong.
1. Have you ever had a hatchling totally refuse to eat and die 2 to 3 months later from starvation?
2. This was our first year with twins and we lost one, but the other is still hanging on. Is twin survival difficult at best?

Thanks again. I'll have to dig and see if I can produce as detailed records for our smaller breeding.

1. The short answer is no. I do not let them go past about 6-8 weeks before I assist feed.

2. I have only produced twins twice, and they have all 4 done well for me. So, I don't speak from much experience there, but once again, if they start slow, I do assist feed.

I hope that helps,