Quote Originally Posted by Egapal View Post
http://www.rcreptiles.com/articles/e...-reptiles.html

I know of multiple cases of 12 year old girls that get pregnant (humans), I know of cats and dogs that are bred to soon and have complications. I have first hand experience dealing with horses that were bred too soon. Your argument does not make any since. Just because it happens in the wild and can happen doesn't mean it should. Animals die all the time in the wild from disease and yes complications from pregnancy. If you want to roll the dice like the animals do in the wild then fine. I would rather go with the much better odds that we get when we use that thing on top of our shoulders. What good is having this large brain that insidentely causes problems with human birth all the time if we are not going to use it.

And once again. Sure BP's can be kept together. The OP asked for the forums thoughts. Well guess what, not everyone agrees. Spread of disease, egg binding, and cannibalism are all possible. The OP has already risked the first. Is currently risking the second due to one of the females at least being under breeding weight and yes cannibalism is rare but we would be remiss not to mention it.

As for proof of the above. Its not on us to prove anything. If you disagree then fine. If you care about our opinion (the OP did ask after all) then look it up. Judge for yourself the risks. In the end we each are responsible for our own animals and no one else's.
And fish swim and birds fly.

Why do people always throw up comparisons with mammals when talking about reptile reproduction?

There is NO denying that early pregnancy in mammals can be detrimental to the female. But, and here's a key point you seem to have missed, we are NOT discussing mammals.

Reptiles do things a tad differently, especially the egg layers.

IF a female can lay viable 2 viable eggs and have no ill effects from it, is that not a successful breeding? It may not bring the owner as much profit as a 6 or 12 egg clutch, but if there is no difference in the females after laying, why is it better to have large clutches?

I'm not advocating breeding small or young females. I am saying that IF the female produces viable ova, is fertilized and then lays good eggs, how is this wrong? No one gave her hormone treatments. No one forced her to produce ova. She did it because she was ready to.

Otherwise, she would not have produced ova.

Opinions are fine, but lets try to be factual and species specific, not emotional and anthropomorphic.