True or false egg question

[John1982]

So I've heard that if you hold back a sexually mature female a couple years before breeding, the snake being 4+ years old and never bred, That she will produce a large clutch. And that if you start them young then they will always have a small clutch for the rest of their lives. I don't remember where I heard this, either on this forum or another one. Coming from you experienced breeders, is that true? Doesn't sound like it makes sense because I would think clutch size depends on the females size and age.


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I would say it's false.

Here are my results from a 2008 female pastel that I started breeding in late 2010:

In late 2010 she was a virgin right at 1200g when I began pairing, she laid her first clutch of 5 eggs in 2011. She got back up to size and I began pairing again in late 2011, laid a clutch of 7 eggs in 2012. She got back up to size and I began pairing again in late 2012, dropped a clutch of 6 eggs in 2013. She did not add additional size between the 2012 and 2013 seasons so I figured she was pretty much maxed out at ~1800g and would hence forth be a 6-7 clutch layer for me. Then this season(2013/2014) she really exploded in size and is now over 3000g and building. Even though this girl has been bred and laid 100% perfect clutches(no slugs, no reabsorbs) every year since she was 1200g she has continued to grow and, for at least for 2 out of 3 seasons, put on additional size in the off season. I'm expecting this next clutch to be her largest yet and will update when they're on the ground.

To make it more comparable:

Female was smallest in 2011, laid 5 eggs.
Female was larger in 2012, laid 7 eggs.
Female roughly same size in 2013, laid 6 eggs.
Female MUCH larger in 2014, impending clutch.