Should I buy older females to get a head start on breeding?

If you feel your ready to breed, and are able to properly incubate, care and provide for the babies, I'd buy a "breedable" female. I have found a few of them, that are Pets. The owner(s) just either dont have the time anymore or funds to care for them. As long as they are healthy, go for it.

Good luck either way...I'm planning on buying a "breedable" or close to weight female for my 1st try at breeding....I've done and still do a bunch of research everyday to make sure I'm MORE then prepared for whatever may come from breeding.

I had aquired two of my females that were pets, that are the best breeders, and biggest producers in my collection. Many people who just have a pet, end up having to give it up because of moving, lost job, was their son's and he left for college, etc,. You can luck out that way and get some great normal big females that are ready to breed! If I need a female to be closer to breeding size rather than raising up a hatchling, getting yearling females that are still young, but have some size to them isn't a bad way to go, either. They're already feeding well, so you can cut your raise-up time in half.

I think it was mentioned before, but a lot of breeders are moving normal females out to make room for morph females.
I know as soon as each one of my morph girls reach breeding size, a normal female will be moved out.
Ball python breeding is a marathon, not a sprint. There is always next breeding season.....

That makes since, but it also makes since that you would get of your "Worst Breeders" also. but are there breeding pasts perminent, meaning if they produced 3 good eggs the past two years could they not get a 7 egg clutch this year? I don tthink so but then again i am not experienced. But we breed of statistics so it makes since to give off a proven breeder when a morph breeder is of size, but not your "Best Breeder"

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Originally Posted by monk90222

I think it was mentioned before, but a lot of breeders are moving normal females out to make room for morph females.
I know as soon as each one of my morph girls reach breeding size, a normal female will be moved out.
Ball python breeding is a marathon, not a sprint. There is always next breeding season.....

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I've bought large numbers of adult normal females to start out, and I have actually had few problems. The trick is to shop around and ask questions.

If you want to know if the female lays lots of eggs--ask how many were in her last couple of clutches. If you want to know if she's a good eater--ask. Low fertility is USUALLY the fault of the male, though, not the female (although overweight females are more prone to slug out).

Ask, ask, ask. If the person is reputable, they're not going to lie to you, because that will come back and bite them in the butt. The worst they can say is "I don't know". Sometimes that's acceptable, and sometimes it's not--I don't personally care to do business with someone who cannot be bothered to keep track of clutch sizes and weights on his/her normal females.

The least satisfying deal I ever made was to purchase a lot of 10 proven females for a VERY low price. They are all 'ok'--but some were underweight and needed the year off, and at least one was so aggressive that I re-sold her (with full disclosure). The remaining animals are starting to shape up now, after a year of good feeding, and I'm getting clutches from them. But it's not a deal I would make again, because it proved to not be worth the savings.

It's SO much better to buy individual females or SMALL groups, with full records--and to buy BIG females. The big girls lay giant clutches. I have one big girl who laid 13 eggs. 8 to 10 eggs is common for the ones over 2500 grams.

Always check reputation, and look for girls being sold for the following reasons:
Normals are being phased out and replaced with morphs.
Breeder is retiring and is selling entire collection.

If I had bought all baby snakes, I'd never have been able to afford to keep a collection of 41 animals the past three years. Since I didn't, the snakes have paid for themselves, AND paid for expansion.
This is the first year we're going to be holding back LARGE numbers of hatchlings. Previously, we sold nearly all of our hatchlings, and used the money to buy more adult females, and the occasional morph male.

It should be fun picking them out!

I've bought a few older females and have had them go off feed until they got used to their new home. One didn't eat for 4 months.

So, I prefer to hold back babies or buy baby/young females.