What is the smallest female you've bred?

[MasonC2K]

I have always read that 1200g is the minimum for a female to breed. Well, what if they just don't even get big? I have a 7 yr old female that has never weighed more than 1150g. Last I measured her she was about 45 inches long.

Would it be safe to try and breed her given her age or should I just keep her solely as a pet and pursue getting another female to breed with?

FYI, other than her I have a large male pastel.

[stratus_020202]

It's more about sexual maturity than weight. If she's 7 yrs, she should be more than capable of handling a clutch. Most people use the weight rule to get bigger clutches. Since, in theory a 2000g girl will give you more eggs than a 1200g girl.

As longs as she looks healthy, she should be fine. There is nobody in the wild regions telling them they are too small to breed, and some females will never be huge.

Just imo. There is one way to find out, pair her up. Watch to see of she'll take a male. If she does, then she's ready.

[ClarkT]

I would just wonder why she's not gaining weight. At 45", she's probably not really skinny at 1150 grams. Does she not eat well?

If she's a decent eater, you might try this. Feed her a smaller meal every 3 days--something about 50 grams. Just from experience, she'll gain and grow faster that way than feeding her every 5-7 days with a 100-150 gram meal.

What seems to happen is that they digest the small meals faster than the larger meals. They really grow and put on weight when fed like this. Again, this is just my experience. Only try this if she's a good eater. If she's a shy eater, I wouldn't even try this.

We have a girl that at 5 yrs. old, she weighed 400 grams. It took about 3 months to get her eating well. She has now grown to almost 4' long, and 1207 grams empty. If she wouldn't have gone off of feed a month ago (darn breeding season...), she'd probably be 1350 or more now. She didn't really start putting on size, length and weight until last fall. Right now, we're only offering to her once a week. Anyway, I digress...

If she looks really healthy, not skinny, I would maybe try breeding her. But, I'm just in my first year of breeding. So take it for what it's worth... Good Luck!

btw, if you do breed her and get eggs, let us know how it goes.

[hondo1967]

I have a normal girl who is just not big she eats like crazy and is over 4 years old and is 1100 grams she laid 5 perfect eggs last year and is knocked up again i felt 6 this time.

[loonunit]

She might just be small. Like some human women are barely 5' tall? But 7 years old is prime breeding age. Maybe she'll just lay small clutches? Or normal-sized clutches with small eggs?

[AJs Snake House]

I'm a small woman (5'1) 92 lbs and produced two clutches of healthy babies

[JoeEllisReptiles]

I thew a male with a very small female a few years back. I had a 850 gram female that went off feed. I threw my pied with her to spark feeding again. I do this with some females to get them back on food. Well she laid 3 eggs at 970 grams. I produced 2 pied and one het. pied. She is healthy and is going to lay for me this season. I did not breed her expecting her to get knocked up. She was 2 years old and the babies are great as well as mom.

Joe Ellis

[spitzu]

Started breeding a 1200g normal last fall and I am regretting it. She hasn't been eating too well and just ovulated w/6 follicles at 1580 grams. At least I think she ovulated... she shows all the signs but she keeps alternating between the warm side (perfect ball position) and soaking in her bowl. She has been soaking about 50% of the day since the 26th.