What Would You Do?

I would breed every female right now with your Mojave. They will go into building mode and will gain the weight if they are ready to lay. I had a 1100 gram female build to 1700 grams and drop 7 eggs for me in three months. If they are not ready to produce they usually wont. As far as the market goes I can say I could sell 50 female mojave females between $250-$300 at a single show if i had that many. Pins, pastels, and spiders sell but not as easy. I would breed your females, feed them as much as they will eat, feel for follicles, and pair them up again. keep feeding your males small meals to keep them breeding. I feed males rats and if they stop feeding I will offer mice (I know a huge NO NO to most people) to keep them breeding. I think you should go for the gold if you have a good access to rodents and can keep your girls on food whenever they look like they want to feed. If you can't then wait another year on anything under 1400 grams. I have had one female lay at 930 grams. She laid 3 good eggs. I never planned on the breeding as I was young and had no idea what I was doing at the time. She laid fine and is still a great breeder. I do agree that the more weight the better. What a lot of people don't always know is pairing snakes up can also help females gain more weight even if they do not lay. They will go to building mode, gain weight and never lay.... which will be better for you the next year. Just my opinion and what I have done.

Off Topic Tip: Just a little thing I do sometime when I have a picky female go off feed when I know she should be feeding.....

EX: Female at 700 grams stops feeding for 3 months and I know she is not the age to breed. I will throw a male with her for one day. Sometimes they lock, sometimes they do not. The female 9/10 times go back on feed. They never lay, but do gain tons of weight....

I havent introduced any of my pythons yet, But they are all eating like champs. Im watching my smaller males to see how they are eating and acting. Im thinking the pastel will be my problem boy. He is a finicky eater some weeks but still eats. My youn pinstripe hasnt refused at all. The spider and mojave eat but want to go and see the girls its funny, they keep bombing around their tubs knocking over hides spilling water and crumpling up paper towel bedding. They are spending all their time on the right hand side of their tubs closest to the girls rack as they can get. All of my females are eating good they all ate last night no problems.

But last night i did some tank cleaning a few hours after they ate n relaxed i put my mojave in the large 64L cleaning tub while i clean his out. it was no problem then i put the biggest girl Ardis in (1394) she was flicking her tounge around like crazy walking around the tub with her tail tip up lol. I know from last year this time with my original ball python that shes looking for the boys n letting them smell her. After i put The big girl back in her tub i put the spider in the cleanin tub n he was going nuts. Ive never seen him move to fast n seem to intent on finding something, which im guessing would be her. He nvr hisses or puff but when i tried to take him out he got a little P.O at me n huffed n puffed n tracked my hand but never struck out. Funny to see boys go girl drunk lol reminded me of the bebe south park episode where the boys go neandertall lol hoota! llmao!

Last night i picked up 80 FT rats ive also got my own breeding colony of rats with 2 males 10 females n about 18 babies right now. So now that im stocked up im going to offer when every ive got a girl looking at me with the food eyes, not waiting every 5 days but i wont over feed 'em. Thanks for the advice and opinions everyone makes it a little easier to plan out what i will do or am capable of doing soon.

Thanks to JoeElliseReptiles for the tip about the one day to get them back on feeding Ancantha will finally get over 1200 gr now :D Ive also got a girl whos 2 yrs old named Aldara so will also benifit from this :D shes in at 897 right now weighed today n shes is empty, really empty shed, # 1 n 2 and now she is about to eat a 68gr FT rat.

Also i was thinking about put my mojave to 2 girls, one a for sure alll mojave breeding, n the other a whos ur daddy cluth with the pinstripe. Ive been asked about mojaves more then anything else lol what is up with that? big morph this year to make potions? everyone wants a potion. (or at least i do :D)