Quote Originally Posted by loonunit View Post
but if you wait, you'll have a HUGE female. She'll give you more eggs if you wait a year, and she'll always BE huge, and will probably give you larger clutches down the road.
I wonder if this works in the wild for them. Would this mean that a female in the wild that reaches sexual maturity at 18 months and 800-1000g will always stay small and have small clutches? or would she grow larger and lay larger clutches over time as she matures and grows? I'm not trying to say waiting is a bad thing, but I'm more curious about what happens in the wild since they don't have these "guidelines" that breeders have set up (many things being health/safety issues for the animals - that being a good thing).

what if you have an older female that doesn't get over 1000g? What about an older female under 1000g? or as the op said, a young female at or above the recommended weight? will she be "stunted" if bred early? I'm asking these question for the purpose of discussing and learning. thank you.