Willing having some undersized females in my breeding groups delay mating?

[euphuistical]

I have three breeding colonies set up now, though none have produced babies yet. Two are 1.2, the other is 1.4. In the 1.4 there is at least one female that is only 35g or so. Will that slow down mating among the others? At what weight should the male and females be before they start knocking each other up?

[Emilio]

I don't think a young female will affect the others at least it hasn't here. I've retired many females and just replaced them with offspring or other young females. Females start producing at 2 or 3 months males grow fast and reach maturity even faster.

[euphuistical]

I don't think a young female will affect the others at least it hasn't here. I've retired many females and just replaced them with offspring or other young females. Females start producing at 2 or 3 months males grow fast and reach maturity even faster.

Cool, thanks. Looks like I am still at least two months away from having any babies. At least my current ASF dealer will be happy heh.

I get em for a buck a piece, so not too bad, I really have started to prefer live ones than frozen. Much easier to just grab x number of ASF out of the bin and toss em in the cage than return any that aren't eaten. Much easier than defrosting, wiggling, then refreezing that I was doing.

[JenEric Reptiles]

damn im pay $4 a

[matt71915]

shouldnt be a problem at all

i prefer live too, waaaay easier

your lucky i had to get mine for 3 bucks each, now their free

[euphuistical]

Yeah my supplier is awesome. Going to get some asfs and some normal rats from hm later today in fact.

Really can't wait til mine are "free" yet heh

[frankykeno]

Here's a couple of stickies that may be of help to you....

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=70828

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=81304

Having a younger/smaller female in the colony will not affect the other females willingness to breed. The smaller females may however get picked on by the dominant female. Every colony has one of those and she's usually very pushy with the other females especially once she produces her first litter and is establishing her role as boss lady.

Since all females in the colony nurse or assist in the raising of the young in a communal manner (even the male takes his turn with nest care) the younger females will pitch right in and take their turns too even if they've yet to produce their own young.