Quick question about breeding

I pulled them at 4 weeks when I was breeding for feeders.

Now with the ones I'm keeping, I leave them with their mom until 6 or so weeks. They are usually half again larger than the babies I pull at 4 weeks. However, the mothers can't support a litter of 10-16 babies at 6 weeks.

I usually cull all of my litters (even now) to no more than 6-8 young. The babies and mom seems to be a lot healthier. The female also seems to be able to recover a lot faster.

Thanks for the help guys and gals! This is really informative! Where do you guys purchase your breeders at? The ones I have for now I purchased at a local pet store, not one of the big chain stores, this one has been around before I was even around lol. I'm in Illinois, so there's not alot of choices for me to go to. I'm thinking the midwest reptile show is coming at the end of the month, I might try and see if they have anything there.