just for kicks

I have a 3yr old 2000g virgin female. How many eggs would you guess she could lay on her first season? I'm guessing a hopeful 6 but I'd like to hear from those w/ experience.

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Originally Posted by joshthaxton

I have a 3yr old 2000g virgin female. How many eggs would you guess she could lay on her first season? I'm guessing a hopeful 6 but I'd like to hear from those w/ experience.

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My largest female, of just under 4200 grams, laid a 9 egg clutch, however, 6 were slugs.

bummer. I tried breeding last year but later found out that my he was a she, so nothing happened. I'm trying to make this my first successful year so that's why I've been waiting to breed her for so long.

Using basic rules of thumb, I would say 7. However, I have had 1200 gram females lay 6 eggs. I have also had 2500 gram females lay 5 and other 2300 gram females lay 9. There is no good way to guess.

I've been wondering about this, too, since I have a similarly-aged virgin female who will hopefully produce this year.

Since I haven't seen anyone else do it, I think I'm going to plot weight (and maybe length) vs. clutch size (good eggs, slugs, and total eggs) and see if there's a correlation. The hardest part will be to find a good point in the cycle to weigh them without including the developing eggs....

Oh, look, I went on a tangent! Sorry 'bout that.... But yeah, sounds like it varies by quite a bit. I'll cross my fingers for both of our clutches to be at least 6 good eggs!

A friend who has been breeding for a few years looks at the length of the caudal 3rd or so of the female -- corresponding with the oviducts -- to estimate egg production. (So -- length more than weight.)

I have absolutely no clue how to do this, or whether it is even remotely accurate, but maybe after I've been breeding for a few years, I'll be able to tell you :P

Palpating/Ultra Sounding for follicles would tell you....but would be cheating!

I had 4 Virgin Females drop 8 eggs each last year, all were between 1900g and 2400g.