breeding weights

[mdjudson]

So this will be my first year breeding and I am not to sure on some of my females. I have a normal that will definatly go but I am not sure on some of my co doms. I have a lesser at 750 grams and a pastel at 700. If I can get these girls up to 1100+ grams should they be ok to try to breed? They are both late 07's. They are both aggressive rat feeders and I do not think I will have a problem getting the weight on them I am just not sure if they will have the age. What do you guys think?

Mike

[Mr. Constrictor]

1500 grams for a female. dont push it. your girls are half the size most people will tell you is ok.

[Jay_Bunny]

I've heard of people breeding lower weight females but those females are normally over 3 years old and are just small for their age. My rule is nothing below 1500g will breed.

I have a female that is an '07. She's 1015g and I'm waiting until she is at the very minimum 1500g. I have an '06 female that is technically old enough to breed but she's only 980 (ish) grams. I'm going to wait till she is 1500g. I have an '05 female that bred for me this past season. When she was paired she was 1800g. She lost 500g from the season and right now she is 1460g. Almost to 1500g! But I'm not going to breed her till she is up to 1700 or 1800g.

[wRobio]

Also, you really need to assess each individual snake. If you say you will breed any snake as long as she is at least 1500 grams, you will end up hurting females that need to be more than 1500 grams.

I know someone with a ball that is about 10 and has been bred every year since she was 2 or 3. She never really lengthened out and now weighs in at around 2800 grams before going off feed, and is just shy of three feet. She may just be a short ball, but when I look at her it makes me want to let all my females lengthen and grow for a good deal of time before breeding them. I can't help but think 7 years of repetitive breeding stunted her length.

[sg1trogdor]

WEll I know that 1500g is just a rule of thumb but I would wait until about 1800-2000. Thats just me though. I have 8 or 9 that are at or above 1500 but will only breed the ones closer to 2000. That's just me. I prefer to wait rather then risk harming one of my animals. Granted a proper weight female can still have complications but why add to the risk. Hope this helps.

[Blue Apple Herps]

Yeah, better to wait and be safe. Plus you don't want to try and powerfeed them to just put weight on for the sake of putting weight on. Even if they weight 1500+ g, if they're fatty and not a that weight in a healthy way, then it won't matter.

So I'd just feed them normally and see what happens. If they grow nice and steadily, you can always pair later in the season. But if it was me, I'd just feed them through the winter and next year and by then they should be plenty of big enough.