Pairing frequency on a single female

[Nussman]

Wanted to get some opinions on pairing frequency on a single female as she builds follicles throughout the season. I've heard of a few different approaches ranging from weekly pairing after feeding, to getting one lock per calendar month, to just getting 2 or 3 locks in the entire season.

Personally, I shoot for 1 lock a month on a female. If I had a smaller collection I might breed more frequently, but I just think its too strenuous when a male is breeding more then a couple of females.

What are your approaches?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Each female get paired once a month twice IF I am not seeing anything positive such as courting etc

[Eric Alan]

The more experience you have with your animals, the less frequently they should need to be paired. I don't mean that just because a person is new that they need to pair more often. I mean that there are physical signs and behaviors that a female will exhibit when she is most receptive that a less experienced keeper likely wouldn't pick up on.

At one end, you have those who use an ultrasound to measure folicle growth and basically have pairing down to a science - they are able to pair at basically the perfect time and only need a lock or two in order to get things rolling. Similar results can be had from being proficient in palpating your females. On the other end, you have those who pair just to pair and hope for the best. If a girl isn't ready to go, she just plain isn't going to go and there's no use in putting a male to more work than necessary when it can already be taxing enough as it is.

My approach is that I'm getting there with palpating, but I'm still learning its nuances with my girls. Similar to Deborah, I'm in the ~1x per month/shed cycle bucket the majority of the time. I'd love to get it down to a science, but I'm not there yet.

[mwolf]

I've been doing once per shed cycle and it's been working very well for me!