When To Retire Breeders?

[WingedWolfPsion]

Sorry to double-post, but I came back and realized that this deserves more explanation.

In mammals, there is either a menopause in females after which breeding isn't possible, or the females produce smaller, weaker, or deformed offspring as they become old. Males can often continue to breed until they are extremely elderly.

In reptiles, however, things are different. Reptiles continue to grow slowly over the course of their life, and very old females, with their larger size, generally lay larger clutches of eggs (at least, in species where the number of offspring is variable).
Old reptiles are usually at the top of the dominance ladder. Unlike mammals, where older animals are deposed once they pass their prime, reptiles simply become more dominant and stronger as they age, up until they begin to develop age-related infirmities and die.

In many species of reptiles, fertility continues without a hitch right up until the point of death--in some, it ceases a few years before death.
In the wild, the old reptile has proven its genetic fitness by surviving longer than the others, and it produces more offspring (which means, it spreads its genes further than younger animals). There does not appear to be any decline in the quality of offspring associated with aging in reptiles.

As a result, so long as the animals are healthy, and are still capable of fertility, there's no reason to stop breeding them. You should get large healthy clutches from big old females. As for males--if they're getting the job done, why retire them?