Female Size : Clutch Size

[bait4snake]

In your experience, is there a predictable ratio for weight of a female to how many eggs she'll produce? Like, how many eggs will a 1400 gram female produce? A 1700 gram? A 2000 gram? A 2500 gram? A 3000 gram?

If you have no idea, how many eggs did your female produce at what weight? I'm sure it varies... maybe just write your experience.

[Wild Bill]

Adam has a good formula. Maybe he will post it.

[Adam_Wysocki]

It's generally accepted throughout "the biz" that you can calculate clutch size as ...

1/3 females body weight / 100 (avg weight per ball python egg) ... a 1500 gram female will generally lay 5 eggs.

There are certainly exceptions to the rule because egg sizes can vary. Typically a female that once lays smaller (or larger) eggs will always lay either smaller or larger eggs, so after you get that first clutch, you can weigh the eggs and "dial her in" for future clutches.

-adam

[bait4snake]

I love forums. Easy random information at your fingertips.

Thanks Adam!

[RandyRemington]

I've actually not seen that much consistency between years on egg size for the same female. Noticing that the 1/3 weight rule was fairly consistent but that the egg size (and hence number of eggs relative to the size of the snake) varied I had hopes that one could selectively breed for balls that laid more and smaller eggs. Perhaps the few and big babies model works well for them in their native habitat but I've had good luck with small cb babies (twins and runts) so smaller babies seemed an acceptable price for more of them. However, in my limited sample size I've seen girls lay small eggs one year and big ones the next. Maybe Adam has some that have a consistent genetic tendency to produce small eggs and if he could breed that into a big female then maybe 20 or more eggs would become common. Worth trying anyway.