What is the youngest you'd breed a female ball?

[euphuistical]

Yeah I have been keeping a close eye on obesity among my flock. My mojave female looks like she may be a bit chubby but she's still only like 6 months old so I'm not really sure if it's worth worrying about it. All my 1700g+ females are looking great.

My main concern is one of my normal femles around 850g who hasn't eaten since I've gotten her. Though I've heard this is a common spot for females to go off feed for a bit. And I know 3-4 weeks off feed is nothing to be alarmed at. Just one of those annoying things with working with ball pythons. Small price to pay to working with these beautiful animals.

[hoax]

I didn't answer the poll because this next season is my first year at trying to breed.

From what I have learned from watching, asking questions, and listening I want my girls to be 3 years and a minimum of 1500g.

My reasons for believing this is that waiting until they are at least three years is they will be stronger and more able to give me a better size clutch and better eggs. Weather this is true or not remains to be seen.

Mike

[kidkaos520]

so it sounds like personal preference with the median being around 30 months. I am kind of torn between I have a spider that is 850 empty and a pastel that is 1115 empty both are 08 and with the way the female pastel eats she should have plenty of weight by the start of the year. Wouls any of you attempt to breed them or would you wait until next fall

[likebull1]

so it sounds like personal preference with the median being around 30 months. I am kind of torn between I have a spider that is 850 empty and a pastel that is 1115 empty both are 08 and with the way the female pastel eats she should have plenty of weight by the start of the year. Wouls any of you attempt to breed them or would you wait until next fall

Your best bet is to wait til next season

[Wh00h0069]

One year and around 1100 grams, or so. They will breed if they are ready and won't if they are not. I had a 1200 gram girl give me four perfect eggs this season.

Hope this helps.

[Wh00h0069]

I have heard horror stories and plan to breed females no sooner than two years, preferably three years. I don't want to deal with impacted eggs or a bunch of slugs. What's one more year when it comes to your female's life. I'm not a gambler.

These horror stories can happen to larger girls just as often as they happen to smaller girls, if not more. Smaller girls will not become gravid if they are not ready, so your chance of them becoming egg bound are slim. Also the eggs they produce are smaller than larger females, so the egg size ratio is the same. There are many larger breeders, including Adam Wysocki that breed small females with no issues. Here is a link to a post by Adam on this issue: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...smaller&page=3

Also most likely the people that have told you the horror stories have not actually had the issues themselves. They likely heard them from someone that has heard them from someone who heard it from someone else...

[BallPythonGeek13]

two years

[Eventide]

I haven't started breeding yet, but my plan as of now is to only breed when the female reaches 1200 grams and at least 18 months old. This is absolute minimum, though. My het Axanthic female should be able to reach that weight by winter, but at that point, she will barely be 18 months. I'm not comfortable with breeding her that early. I might breed her mid-summer, depending on her weight, but most likely, I'll be waiting another year for her.

[bad-one]

I haven't started breeding yet but 2 years is my minimum and I'll probably wait until the third on my girl. Weight wise 1,500 is min. and I'd prefer around 1,700g or more.

[WingedWolfPsion]

I think that 2 years and comfortably OVER 1500 grams is the earliest I would breed a female--if the female only just made 1500 at age 2, she'd wait out another year. I wouldn't want to stunt her growth by breeding her early--that seems a very reasonable potential to me.