Question about purchased breeders

[adamfritzsche]

I purchased a couple of female proven breeders awhile back and I have a few questions. The guy I bought them from mentioned that they have been cycled, but not bred as things came up. I intend to breed them, but currently their weights are a little low, so my question is, once I get them back up to weight, which I am estimating about another 6 to 8 weeks before I even re-evaluate, will it be to late to breed them? Can I just start pairing them with a male? Or will I have to give them the whole cool down period again prior? Is the cool down even completely necessary? I have seen mentioning that some do not even do this step and are successful.

I guess what I am really asking is what triggers the female to produce follicles? Is it the cool down/warm up process? Or is it introducing the male? Or a combination of both?

[Zombie]

I purchased a couple of female proven breeders awhile back and I have a few questions. The guy I bought them from mentioned that they have been cycled, but not bred as things came up. I intend to breed them, but currently their weights are a little low, so my question is, once I get them back up to weight, which I am estimating about another 6 to 8 weeks before I even re-evaluate, will it be to late to breed them? Can I just start pairing them with a male? Or will I have to give them the whole cool down period again prior? Is the cool down even completely necessary? I have seen mentioning that some do not even do this step and are successful.

I guess what I am really asking is what triggers the female to produce follicles? Is it the cool down/warm up process? Or is it introducing the male? Or a combination of both?

Some people cool, some don't. All have had success. The issue with proven breeders is they tend to lay their eggs the same time every year, so it helps to know when they laid last time. If they haven't regained enough weight since their last lay they may not produce follicles at all because they use fat storage for it. Pics of the females and ages/weights will be helpful.

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[adamfritzsche]

Some people cool, some don't. All have had success. The issue with proven breeders is they tend to lay their eggs the same time every year, so it helps to know when they laid last time. If they haven't regained enough weight since their last lay they may not produce follicles at all because they use fat storage for it. Pics of the females and ages/weights will be helpful.

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They are both from 2007. The pastel is roughly 1200g and the normal is 1600g.

The breeder who sold them to me told me his breeding process is to start cool down through november. Then after he warms back up, he feeds them good for the next 4 months, once they have regained the weight from the previous season, then he starts pairing. So I would guess that he typically would start them in March.

His process seemed quite different from what most people do, as from everything I have seen, you get them to start regaining the lost weight pretty much right after they lay, but it would seem he feeds them to maintain that weight until the next season, and starts heavy feeding 4 months before pairing. So I am not quite sure what the deal is or will be with these two.

[AK907]

They are both from 2007. The pastel is roughly 1200g and the normal is 1600g.

The breeder who sold them to me told me his breeding process is to start cool down through november. Then after he warms back up, he feeds them good for the next 4 months, once they have regained the weight from the previous season, then he starts pairing. So I would guess that he typically would start them in March.

His process seemed quite different from what most people do, as from everything I have seen, you get them to start regaining the lost weight pretty much right after they lay, but it would seem he feeds them to maintain that weight until the next season, and starts heavy feeding 4 months before pairing. So I am not quite sure what the deal is or will be with these two.

Yeah, that does sound very odd to me. I start feeding our females as soon as they lay. It takes a lot out of them and they NEED that extra nutrition after laying. To cool them right after laying without them building back up their weight would likely be very dangerous to their health. This guy sounds like a quack. Definitely get some weight on those girls, especially the pastel. I won't breed any female under 1,500g and I try to wait til they are closer to 2,000g if I can. As Zombie said, I don't bother cooling and ours breed just fine. Cooling, IMO, is more of a colubrid thing.

[adamfritzsche]

Cool, thanks guys. I will work on building them back up to good weights and see where I am at from there.

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