It really does only take once >_<

Back in January I did something really stupid. I paired my 2010 lemon pastel with my spotnose. She was about 1100g then and they did lock. I was planning on trying to get her up to 1500g as soon as possible, but that didn't really happen. She's at 1270g now and it looks like she's building. I'm seeing the same swell I saw when my 2500g+ female built and then ovulated. She hasn't eaten in about a month.

Is there a good chance she will slug out? As exciting as it would be to get a pastel spotnose from her, I'm worried because she's so small. I don't want her to get egg bound. I only paired her once because I had second thoughts about breeding her this soon.

It figures that my pastel I only breed once is showing signs of ovulating, but the normal I've been pairing since October isn't. :rolleyes:

I've bred a couple small girls without issue, but they were over 3 years old. The only one I've bred at a younger age is my cinny who is 21 months old and a freakish 2,000ish grams, and she's about 40 days from laying.

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Originally Posted by Kinra

Back in January I did something really stupid. I paired my 2010 lemon pastel with my spotnose. She was about 1100g then and they did lock. I was planning on trying to get her up to 1500g as soon as possible, but that didn't really happen. She's at 1270g now and it looks like she's building. I'm seeing the same swell I saw when my 2500g+ female built and then ovulated. She hasn't eaten in about a month.

Is there a good chance she will slug out? As exciting as it would be to get a pastel spotnose from her, I'm worried because she's so small. I don't want her to get egg bound. I only paired her once because I had second thoughts about breeding her this soon.

It figures that my pastel I only breed once is showing signs of ovulating, but the normal I've been pairing since October isn't. :rolleyes:

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There are a lot of threads on here about people breeding smaller appropriately aged females. I believe recently someone had a female lay some good eggs and only weighed 645g after laying. I'm sure you will be absolutely fine. Just keep an eye on her. If she is having trouble passing the first egg you may need to intervene, but my money says you probably wont have an issue. Good luck with your clutches and may the odds gods smile upon you...

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How old is she. 1500grams is a general guideline but i think age can play just as important of a factor into whether or not theyre sexually mature.
With humans not all girls mature at the same age. (i know i know, theyre obviously not the same but im just making the point.)

I wouldn't worry - if she was out in the wild I'm sure she would have been bred as well. If they are ready, they breed.

Good luck - that is a nice combo!!

Thanks everyone. This is my first breeding season, and I got a little freaked out when I was cleaning cages and realized she was most definitely building. I thought she was glowing, but I was trying to convince myself I was imaging things. :P

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

How old is she. 1500grams is a general guideline but i think age can play just as important of a factor into whether or not theyre sexually mature.
With humans not all girls mature at the same age. (i know i know, theyre obviously not the same but im just making the point.)

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I don't know exactly how old she is. I got her in June of 2011 and she was already ~400g and she was sold to me as a 2010.

She really wanted to be breed this season. She was tail wagging whenever another snake was put any where near her (even if they were female).

She's not skinny by any means, but she just seems so tiny compared to the females I was actively pairing all winter.

I wouldn't worry too much. I know quite a few people that breed balls at 1200 (sometimes less) and they have never reported issues.

She should be fine. Animals come in gravid from Africa at 900+ grams all the time and lay fine. Just watch her & make sure no signs of egg binding (doubt it would or will happen but can) if your worried. :)

A Ball Python won't lock up if it isn't ready so seeing as she locked up she should be fine. 1500 is a guide line as some one stated above but Ball pythons have been successfully bread with no problems from 1000 grams and up. The only real down side is a smaller female will most likely produce less eggs.

its more about weight to length ratio. with age its if the are sexually mature or not. the question is if she has enough weight to support her eggs. 1200 grams is fine as long as she not too long for her weight. you can still feed her if she will eat. don't pound her with large feeding at one time. smaller feedings more often is what you want to do. she can still gain a good bit of weight before shes ready to lay, depending where she's at in the breeding cycle. I had many females breed at 18 months around 1500 grams and had 7 to 8 good eggs no slugs. and they went on breeding the next year and did well also. 1200 grams expect less eggs.