Breeding every year

[Snakydan]

Hi, I've a female which breed for a consecutive 3 years and laid a healthy clutch of 5 eggs in year 1, 5 eggs in year 2 and 7 eggs 1 slug in year 3.

I always got her weight back to normal in 3-4 months time or even slightly higher. And time nearing to breeding period, will heavily pumped it with rats every 7 days consistently.

Just wondering, will there be any side effect or any issues that I got to look into for breeding it for the fourth year? Or I should give her a year break? How do they behave in the wild? The female is healthy, eating like a pig and free of any illness.

Kindly advise, thanks

[piedplus]

This interests me too, so here's a bump.

[TheSnakeGuy]

I've heard from several breeders at reptile shows that as long the appetite is strong And they stay at a healthy weight a female can breed every year from age 2-3 well into their twenties.

[hypnotixdmp]

That's like asking if the females take a year break every once in a while in the wild. I am going to say that's a negative, keep her going every year!!!!

Ball Pythons
0.3 Normals (Coilette, Athena and Mary Jane)
1.0 Spider Morph (Zeus)
1.0 Mojave (Prometheus)
1.0 Pastel (De Sol)

Boas
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Stella)
0.1 Hog Island BCI (Kiyoko)
0.1 Dumerils Boa (Gloria)
0.1 Yellow Anaconda (Serenity)

[GPreptiles]

I think that if she will need a break she will just take it, and you won't be able to force her not to .

[fatSNAKEs]

Great question, agree with the thread comments. I also have a large, '08 gravid female Pin on her 4th consecutive year. Her weight has progressively increased ... she's now about 3800gms and would predict 12+ eggs this season. (bred to a Butterbee) I think mother nature is the balance, but as breeders, we have the responsibility to monitor weight/growth/health as the key dependencies. I have other girls that have dropped clutches and "lost" weight so as a result would give them another year to recover. But in my case it helps to have to a big arsenal of girls to breed ... hope this helps. Good luck!

[TheSnakeGuy]

I know if I had a 3,000+gram female she wouldn't be taking a year off ever unless she had an RI or something that would/could jeopardize her health.

[Snakydan]

Thanks for all your feedbacks, I guess I got a pretty straight forward answer, will get her rolling again this year !