super pastel breed to what

[Abaddon91]

sounds like a plan

[tikigator]

If the female eats really well I'll start breeding her at 1300-1400 grams and when they start their feeding frenzy they top 1500+ grams before they start building follicles.
If the female isn't the greatest eater I prefer to wait till they hit 1500 grams+

The size of the snake does not always correlate to larger clutches.
I have a 2500 gram girl that dropped 7 eggs and a 1500 gram girl that has 7 eggs.
I do prefer to breed the larger girls though, they just seem to do better and recover better after dropping eggs.

I would pick up a large normal or two and learn the whole breeding process with something not so expensive.
There's certainly nothing wrong with whole clutches of pastels

I've definately heard and read in quite a few places that the smaller the female the less chance of getting a good quantity of viable eggs. In fact, I know someone whos 2900 gram female laid a clutch of 13 and 12 of those hatches

I also know someone who has bred 2 different females under 1600 grams and both laid 4 eggs each and one of the eggs was a slug. So I don't know I assume each snake is different (just like each animal or human is different) but as a rule I would think breeding less than 1500 grams is not the greatest idea....as you said especially if they aren't great eaters.

[zues]

I've definately heard and read in quite a few places that the smaller the female the less chance of getting a good quantity of viable eggs. In fact, I know someone whos 2900 gram female laid a clutch of 13 and 12 of those hatches

I also know someone who has bred 2 different females under 1600 grams and both laid 4 eggs each and one of the eggs was a slug. So I don't know I assume each snake is different (just like each animal or human is different) but as a rule I would think breeding less than 1500 grams is not the greatest idea....as you said especially if they aren't great eaters.

As a general rule I think you are correct but there are exceptions. For example this year I bred 1300 gram 5 year old female and a 3 year old 1800 gram female. They both laid 5 fertile eggs with no slugs. All eggs from both clutches hatched. The smaller snake has never been a strong feeder. This year she stopped eating when I started pairing. After a month or so of her refusing food I decided to throw a male with her. She was the last female to be paired up and she was the first to lay. I was worried about her after she laid because she was around 900 grams. She has eaten better in the 2 months since she laid than ever before. She already weighs more than she did before breeding.