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  1. #11
    BPnet Veteran jason79's Avatar
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    I also believe age, health and over all body condition matter more than weight. I have seen, and own some females that were/are picky eaters not loosing weight but not gaining much either. Some of them start pounding rats and put weight on once you begin pairing. Some even become your best feeder after laying a clutch so in my opinion at 3 years old if they have good body mass I start breeding no matter what they weigh. If they exceed 1500 grams in two years I will start pairing.

    I raised almost all of my females from hatchlings so I know how old they are for sure and also their feeding habits. Some females will never get up to 2k grams or even 1500 for that matter, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't breed them if they are mature and healthy.

    I have never seen any proof that smaller females lay more slugs, have more complications or shortened lifespan as some people claim. Any snake that you breed runs a risk of complication or something going wrong if your females are healthy your risk will be much lower but weight is NOT how you measure the health of an animal.

    This myth also gets some people to over feed females to try and reach the golden weight faster which is probably not good for the snake. I believe most ball pythons will only eat what their body can handle so over feeding is not really a problem unless it is forced. In my experience they will stop eating on their own if you try to over feed but I have seen a few that looked like a sausage you could see the skin between scales and I doubt thats good for them either.

    This is just my opinion, but I think some of those that propagate this myth just want others to wait longer to begin breeding knowing some females are picky eaters and won't reach 1500 or 2k grams for quite some time without any breeding activity. The purpose is to keep the market from getting so flooded with baby snakes before they make more money with their own. As we all know when supply goes up the price drops down if you can get people to wait another year or two to start breeding that means less babies for sale that year.

    I'm not saying you should breed as soon as possible, but you need to judge each female on a case by case basis based on over all condition not a golden number given on the Internet.
    Click here to see My collection & Available> http://www.iherp.com/Public/Animals/...2-08169f5b8efc

  2. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to jason79 For This Useful Post:

    RideRed12 (04-10-2012),SquamishSerpents (04-11-2012)

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