Smallest female successfully bred?

Sounds good, I'm actually going to take pictures tonight after work. I'll get them up as soon as I can. Thanks for the input!

1300g when i started breeding, she got to 1500g before laying 5 eggs and 2 slugs. She's around 1500g again now.

I thought as you did, for years, actually, but listening to some folks who have put this to the test is changing my mind. It seems that smaller females can safely lay clutches, and they do continue to grow to large sizes afterward, and lay larger clutches. It comes down to the body condition of the female (is she nice and round?), and genetics.

I had thought that laying a clutch would surely slow a female's growth rate, as she put all that energy into egg production, but no one is reporting that it does...and some are reporting the opposite.

I bred a 3+ year old female last year at 1,200+/- grams, she gave me 4 nice eggs, no slugs. This year, I started pairing her at around 2,100 grams and is well on her way to laying. If the snakes have the build to breed and are sexually mature, they will. As far as I know, most will continue to grow at a good rate, some snakes stay on the smaller side. Weight isn't the main factor in successful breeding, IMO.

Here is a picture of my smallest female with a fertile clutch after laying.
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...clutch5005.jpg

And here are her eggs
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...clutch5006.jpg

I've had a smaller female lay eggs that were not fertile but then she hadn't even been bred so it was kind of an odd situation.

Basically, I'll breed anything that's over three years old.

I had a girl that was at 1,300 grams at the start of breeding season and she laid 4 perfect eggs with 4 perfect babies. I fed her as much as she would take to pack weight on her before she went off feed.

On another forum, I read how some guy just put his 2 BPs (M and F) together while he cleaned tubs, when he came back, they were goin at it! She became prego and laid 3 good eggs. However, this is a story I read on a forum from a guy who said he knew the guy this happened to :confused:....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by h00blah

On another forum, I read how some guy just put his 2 BPs (M and F) together while he cleaned tubs, when he came back, they were goin at it! She became prego and laid 3 good eggs. However, this is a story I read on a forum from a guy who said he knew the guy this happened to :confused:....

---

I'm guessing this is relevant only because you forgot to say how big the female was? :P

Personally, I have bred smaller females. The smallest I ever bred was just around 1350g, when I began pairing her up. She is quite short so she wasn't skinny. She was 3 years old. She gave me 5 good eggs. A 2 year old female I bred at 1500g gave me 4.

Age has a lot to do with it, I think. Not so much size. Breeding females is a case by case basis. If you look at a snake and she's 2 years old, 1500g but looks a little on the skinny side (and this can be because she's long and not really plump), you probably want to beef her up a bit before breeding her. Or you could have a 4 year old female who weighs 1300g but she looks plump and is feeding well. I'd probably give her a chance and start pairing because more than likely she'll hit 1500 or more by the time she ovulates.

Ball pythons were built to reproduce. This is why they reproduce their entire life. In the wild females will reproduce when they are sexually mature not once they get some certain size. For those that say it will shorten their life let me pose a question. How many of you that say that have actually raised a ball python from baby to old aged adult?. Exactly