Hey guys,

I'm not breeding feeders yet, but have 2 males (pets) currently and am going to adopt some pups at 4 weeks old next Saturday. I have the option to get males or females or both.

Here's my issue... I don't want to breed yet and do have cage space to house genders separately. The ones I can adopt will be more socialized and healthier than my current males and thus better potential pets or breeders.

The earliest I might look into breeding would be in about 9 months when we (hopefully) will be in a house with more room and I can setup more caging, etc. At that point, I still won't be wanting to produce lots of babies, (I'll probably only have 2 snakes that could consume rat pups at that point) but I would be breeding to get future hold backs to start a colony with.

Would 9-10 months be too old to breed a female assuming that I only want 1 litter from her? Also, what do you guys think about females personality-wise in general? I've heard males are more chill and better "pets" and these would be mostly pets...

If females aren't awesome as pets and would be too old to breed at 9 months, I'm assuming I'd be better served to wait to buy females to breed later (although it is hard to find females in my area) and just get males that could still be used to breed when I get those unrelated females.

Also, assuming that I could look at these as potential breeders, I've considered getting some of both genders so that I might be able to select a good male and female to breed to start a colony with.. Would beginning a colony with 2 siblings be too close of a relation?

Thanks for your advice guys!