Do you let them rest?

[Jay_Bunny]

Do you let your breeders rest the season after the season in which they were bred. Say you have a female and you breed her this season. Would you let her rest the following season and not breed her, or is the time between laying the eggs and the start of the next season enough for her to recouperate (spelling).

[lord jackel]

Excellent question and I look forward to others responses.


As for me I think it depends on the animal. Some bounce back very quickly others take some time.

For example - one of my girls gave me 5 eggs last season and got down to 900 grams after laying. She went right back on feed and is now 1700 grams (100 more then last years season), so she will be bred again.

On the other hand I had another girl lay 7 eggs and then take 4 months to decide to eat again and now only eats every other week or so...so she will be getting the season off as I don't feel she is ready to go it again (even though technically she has the weight to)

Hope this helps,
Sean

[Jay_Bunny]

Thanks for the reply! I had been wondering about this earlier this morning and just got around to posting it so I'm very curious as to other people's responses.

[RegiusCo]

That is a great question

It realy depends on the individual female, most are ravenous feeders after dropping their eggs, recoup their weight rather quickly and are ready to go again the following year.

I find bigger heavy females that drop eggs have a harder time recouperating the necessary weight to produce again the following year, most of these end up only going every other year.

Time of year when eggs are laid can also play a major role when the next breeding season comes around, late producing females don't have time to recoup in time for the next breeding season, in our captive breeding cycle anyways

It all boils down to their feeding response after laying

Marc

[ama1997]

Like said depends on the female. I had a female that bred 2 years in a row. I then gave her last year off. Just to get alittle more size on her. If they come back good. Start eating right away and stay eating. Then breed her. If not or only eating every other feeding or something like that. Wait let her get back to normal before you try breeding her again.

[Alice]

Time of year when eggs are laid can also play a major role when the next breeding season comes around, late producing females don't have time to recoup in time for the next breeding season, in our captive breeding cycle anyways

I agree that this is an important piece to the puzzle on whether you should breed your female two years in a row. Wait gain after laying, eating response are also important. I think the question can only be answered by the facts associated with each female. . . . no cut and dried answer that applies to all females IMHO.