New to the site, introducing my pair

Hello everyone, I just stumbled upon this site a couple days ago and signed up. My name's Jim, and I'm from Puyallup, WA. Below are pics of my pair, a Normal Female and a Pastel Male. She weighs in at around 500g and he's right at 300g now, both just came off of winter fast a few weeks ago. I'm wanting to breed them, but I don't know if I can get them to breeding size/weight before this winter without overfeeding.

Male Pastel
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/IMG_0005.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/IMG_0006.jpg

Normal Female
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/IMG_0008.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/IMG_0009.jpg

Lovely pair you have, but I don't think that you would get them up to weight. Even if you were to get the female up to 1500 grams, what winter is she in? They can be the right weight, but not mature enough age wise.

Thanks for sharing your pictures!

Welcome to the site! Good looking snakes!!

She was born in 05 or 06 according to the retiring breeder I purchased them from. They couldn't give me an exact year because she was bought by them also. He was born in 06 for sure though.

Is there any for-sure sign I can look for to tell if she's ready or not?

She could be a late 05, but more likely she is an 06. Regardless, at 500 grams there is no way you are going to get her to breeding size that quickly without overfeeding, in my opinion. I would feed her regularly and wait until next year. Good luck!

I have been feeding her regularly. She takes 2 mice easily, but doesn't seem to want to take a rat. She skipped her last feeding, and refused to touch it even when I left it in her box overnight. I'm going to try scenting the rat next time, so at least she'll have a couple mice to munch on if she doesn't wanna take the bigger meal. She's gained literally 100g in the month that I've had her. I personally think she's thin for her size/age, especially since she's been off feed until just before I got her.

She's not going to get big enough this year, and if they are your first ball pythons, waiting a year is going to benefit you as well, allowing you to learn more about their care and perfect your husbandry. My '06's are almost 1000 grams, and they are NOT breeding this year, even if they were to gain 500 more grams.

You guys haven't said anything about how much my male should weigh before I start considering him healthy enough to attempt to breed.. any input on that?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CntrlF8

You guys haven't said anything about how much my male should weigh before I start considering him healthy enough to attempt to breed.. any input on that?

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He'll be more than ready once that girl is. :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jglass38

He'll be more than ready once that girl is. :P

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Well, I ask because there's a good possibility I could pick up an older/larger female. I see rescues and adoptions in the paper all the time...