Quote Originally Posted by BPelizabeth View Post
My husband and I were having a discussion about you last night in regards to your clutches over the last two years. (yes we are dorks that are over the top with BP's...lol) Anyways....he stated that he was reading about stuff like this...couldn't remember where....anyways.....he read that if you are getting really small 1 or 2 egg clutches you should let the female take 1 year off breeding. Apparently he read that it is very hard on the female and sometimes that do not produce well every year. ????? Not sure if this is something you want to research or not ....just thought I would put it out there for you.

Again that little baby is precious!
Elizabeth, I can see after re-reading my post this morning that I was not totally clear about the Cinny females -- my bad.

The Cinny girls that laid the one egg clutches were DIFFERENT 1600/1900 gram virgin girls.

As far as giving girls a year off between clutches. From talking with experienced breeders and considering it logically -- I am less likely to be concerned about a female that laid 2 eggs or 6-7 slugs than I would a girl who dropped 10 fertile eggs. It takes MANY RATS for a 2500 gram girl who lays 8-10 eggs to put weight back on for the next year!!!

Slugs/1-2 egg clutches use much less body weight and girls are able to get back their body weight quicker for the following season than do females that lay big clutches. They do need to eat enough over a few months to restore nutrients for the next season.

***** I am breeding the girl who laid the Cinny Het Hypo last year.