If up to weight, would you breed a 1 year old female?

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

I'm just not willing to risk an animal not reaching her full potential simply because I was impatient and wanted to 'get ahead of the game'. I can't see that it's worth it in the long run. (I want all my females to lay 13 egg clutches, lol).

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There's no guarantee that you are going to get larger clutches simply because you waited.

I know my animals and know when I feel they are ready. That is what I go by. Everyone has to make their own decision, but I'm not going to crucify someone if they decide to breed young females.

yes! my plans for next year mean breeding my normal female to my lemon pastel male, and the female will be like 17 months and hopefully around 1300 g's considering how much she eats. but if i get to the point where i am breeding lots, i might wait a little longer since ill have more breeding options, but for now, no waiting. im too impatient. if i could id brred her now at 5-ish months old!

There's no guarantee of larger clutches if you wait, no--of course not. But increased likelihood of it? That appears to be there. And that's worth it.

From what observations I've been hearing, females that start off laying small clutches are likely to keep laying small clutches--etc. And females first bred when they are small are much more likely to lay small clutches than those first bred when they are larger. Over the course of a female's life, if that's true by even one little egg, that adds up in a HUGE way.

Wow.....lots of good info here.

The cans and wills of this hobby sometimes outweigh the shoulds. Can a snake of a certain size breed, you bet they can, should they, probably not.

Although snakes in the wild are probably makin babies far before we would consider them "ready" there are a lot of different variables there too. Just like anything else some females mature far faster then others. Some will be ready by 12 months, however very far and few between. If you plan to breed anything, be it balls or corns, do your homework. Coming to the forum and asking questions is a great idea, however sometimes the question asked shows the majority that you are far to new to the hobby to be attempting certain things. Not saying you are new, just saying in general here.

Guess the final thing is, if you have to ask if shes ready, your not.

Let's apply just a tiny bit of logic and and the laws of natural selection to that 'wild snakes' scenario. I'm not saying this is how it is...but it's definitely smart, and nature is often smart.

If the population of ball pythons in an area is high, then the likelihood of young females encountering a male is also very high--so they will breed when they are young and small...and will lay smaller clutches...contributing less to an already high population, and perhaps making it more likely that their offspring will survive when competition for food is high.

If the population of ball pythons in an area is quite low, then females will be more likely to encounter their first male when they are older and larger--and so they will lay a larger clutch, and will have more offspring to eat more plentiful prey items, and survive what might be a higher predation rate.

This makes sense to me.

You can pontificate until the fake magical rocks come home but it doesn't change the fact that people are going to make their own decisions and do what they want or feel is right. I personally would love to hear fact and statistical data from experts rather than theory and speculation from non experts. Just my possibly worthless 2 cents... ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

Let's apply just a tiny bit of logic and and the laws of natural selection to that 'wild snakes' scenario. I'm not saying this is how it is...but it's definitely smart, and nature is often smart.

If the population of ball pythons in an area is high, then the likelihood of young females encountering a male is also very high--so they will breed when they are young and small...and will lay smaller clutches...contributing less to an already high population, and perhaps making it more likely that their offspring will survive when competition for food is high.

If the population of ball pythons in an area is quite low, then females will be more likely to encounter their first male when they are older and larger--and so they will lay a larger clutch, and will have more offspring to eat more plentiful prey items, and survive what might be a higher predation rate.

This makes sense to me.

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Using your theory I could also make the following logical arguement for another practice looked down on:

If feeding is good and the girl grows fast then she should lay more eggs due to a plentiful food source. If food is hard to come by then smaller clutches.

With that said maybe power feeding a snake is the way to make it have larger clutches or at least feeding more often than we do!

(The above statement in no way reflects my own opinion. It is simply being used as a supporter for an arguement.)

Breed a year old female if up to weight, nah, not my style.... I can wait another year. Patience is important to me....

I might consider breeding a 2-year-old if it was up to 1500 grams at age 1, but I would rather wait til they're 3. My thinking is this--if she's 1500 grams at age 1, how big will she be in another year or two? I wouldn't want to stunt her growth. lol