Lightweight new snakes

[slickshadowrunner]

I just picked up a three year old female clown who weighs just a hair over 1000 grams. I'd like to breed her in maybe January or February if I can. What is a safe amount of weight for her to be able to gain in the interim time frame? I have verified that her previous owner fed her small rats with no set frequency so part of my problem will be to get her to switch to larger feedings as well as changing her to live from f/t. Right now she looks intimidated by a live medium rat so I will scale back to live smalls and start there. I don't want to have her pack on too much weight too quickly though if it is harmful. Is such a thing possible? Or can she just pound back as many rats as she wants between now and then? She came with a three year old het clown male who was 540 grams and who had been fed weanlings with the occasional small here and there. He inhaled a medium last night with no effort. Prior to last night (the day I brought both clowns home) he had been fed two weanlings since August 2nd.

[dr del]

I'd say that is asking a bit much from her.

Did both snakes come from the same place? It sounds like it, so if both share the same quarantine area then you could pair them fine.

I just think it's a bit unlikely she will put on 500g and maintain good body condition that quickly - especially as quite a few females hit the 1000g feeding wall and take a bit of a fast.

Definitely get her on a good feeding schedule if you can and monitor it to see how she does for a month or two before deciding one way or another.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Given she is 3 years old chances are she won't be a big female to start with especially if she has been a finicky eater throughout that time.

Regarding feeding I would not feed her larger preys I would feed her more frequently every 5 days instead of 7.

Regarding pairing I would start pairing her when she reach 1100/1200 grams if she looks right (meaning good proportions), hopefully this will actually entice her to eat on a regular basis.

Regarding switching you have to make a choice, you want to switch now or you want her to gain weight in an effort to breed her? Chances of both is very small if you switch her it could take months before she does so and I would not if I were you breed a female that is not eating.

The best time to switch an adult to F/T when it comes to female is actually to do so right after they lay.

Finally keep in mind that when purchasing adults it is not unusual that the females will stop eating and not go that specific season delaying your plan until the next one.

[MrLang]

Body condition > weight. Make sure she looks nice and healthy and chunky. Nice tight skin (empty).

[CORBIN911]

For all you know she could have been bred already this year and thats why her weight is there.

[slickshadowrunner]

Thanks all for the comments. Appreciate much.