Breeding maturity.

[Godzilla78]

At what age and size is a male ready to breed?
at what age and size is a female ready?

I have a 1 year old male, and several females aged between 2-4 years years old.

[Alter-Echo]

You will hear like 10 different opinions on this, I'm sure, but it is my understanding that males are ready at about a year and 500 to 600g. Females are ready at 2-3 years and should be at least 1200g or more, they can breed at lighter weights, but it's not healthy and they often slug out anyway.

[the_rotten1]

At one year the male should be good to go, as long as he's been eating well. Should be over 500 grams at that age. With the females it depends. I usually like to wait until my females are 2.5-3 years and 1500+ grams. Even then, some won't give you eggs until they are bigger/more mature.

Oddly, none of my males showed any interest in breeding until they hit 1000+ grams. Not sure why, as others have bred males much smaller. I've never bred a girl under 1300g, but none of my girls have been hesitant to lock up. Most of them waited until they were 3+ years to ovulate though.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It's more than age it's a combination of age, weight, proportion

For example I will breed a 1500 grams female that is 18 months if she has the right built (proportions), just like I will breed a 1200 grams female that is 4 years old.

Usually the bigger the better, smaller females are often not worth breeding as they will give you small clutches however if the female is mature (4 years and over) but still small (poor feeder etc) the clutch may be larger and it can have some advantage such as jump start her appetite.

Males while you can breed them small and young you can also over breed them and kill them if not careful, in my experience the best males are 650 grams and over.

[enginee837]

I second what Deb said. Our 4 year old female was barely 1200grams for her first time but gave us 7 healthy eggs and bounced back rather quickly. Oddly enough breeding turned her into a feeding monster where she had been a rather picky eater up until that point.