Breeding tooooo young

Personally my husband and I are going with 3rd season and minimum 1,500 grams. There are people that breed younger and lighter for the females but we just don't feel at this point we're ready to push any envelopes (and perhaps we never will). For us, it's just not a rush into anything. It's not like it harms the female to wait but it can harm her to push things too quickly so those odds just encourage us to bide our time and raise up our females to a good, solid size before breeding. By aware, this is our first breeding season so I'm not speaking from years of experience but as a new breeder that has had to make these sorts of decisions with our collection.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Personally my husband and I are going with 3rd season and minimum 1,500 grams. There are people that breed younger and lighter for the females but we just don't feel at this point we're ready to push any envelopes (and perhaps we never will). For us, it's just not a rush into anything. It's not like it harms the female to wait but it can harm her to push things too quickly so those odds just encourage us to bide our time and raise up our females to a good, solid size before breeding. By aware, this is our first breeding season so I'm not speaking from years of experience but as a new breeder that has had to make these sorts of decisions with our collection.

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I agree totally and completely... 3rd winter and 1500g :gj:

Yeah I would not want to risk hurting my animal or even worse. I would not know what to do if my little skyler died (:tears:). Shes my favorite cus she was the first. Raised her from a little bitty thing and shes the sweetest bp i have ever known.

I hear alot of things about breeding size. in the wild what do they do? don't mate don't lay eggs Im sure it depends on the animal but good size makes for more eggs & healthier female after laying,I have not bred Ball Pythons yet but have bred many a corn snake,I bred a yearling female once she was real small laid a small clutch all hatched she was fine, grew & bred every year.But I agree you should have some weight & size on them.

yeah she isn't quite there i guess I will wait till shes about 1500 or so maybe 1400 i don't know we will see how she grows this year and if i think shes ready then again she may have a monster growth spurt she has had several. I have to post some pics later.

We are kinda fortunate and have one of the larger breeders, Michael Cole of Ballroom Pythons South, helping us out with all this. I like to refer to him as Sensie Cole! :D When we asked him about it he said if they are at least 18 months old and 1200 grams you can try and breed them safely. We really trust Michael as he has proven to be a god send for husbandry and breeding related information. With that said we personally have decided we would like to see them make it closer to 1500 grams. If they can make it close to that area in 18 months we will try.

I have seen a lot of differing opinions on this subject on the board and believe a first timer really should look into finding person who has at least couple years of successful breeding under their belt that is willing to act as a mentor too them. I would hope the current breeders would be willing to step up and help others through the process and maybe when we have enough experience I think it would be fun to help out people who are attempting to breed for their first time. With that said though people have to remember that the breeder that is mentoring them have their own lives and must be flexible on responce times. Also a breeder needs to make sure they are not trying to help too many people at one time as I know us newbees can ask a lot of questions and take up a significant amount of time if we are not careful. So remember to respect you Sensie's personal life! :)

I personally have never heard of a ball python becoming egg bound....

I have certainly heard of other snakes having issues but rarely ball pythons.

If she is not sexually mature then she will not ovulate, and therefor she will not produce a clutch of eggs.

If she is sexually mature, she may ovulate fine and produce 2 or 3 eggs.

900 gram females have produced eggs before, and they do produce eggs in the wild at that size.

All of that being said, breeding a 900 gram female that is 2 years old is silly. Wait until next year and she will produce double the amount of eggs and perhaps be able to produce multiple years in a row.

Breed her at 900 grams and she may never be larger than 1200 grams her entire life!