breeding weight

[EMH]

I have been looking around to see what I could find for female breeding sizes and found there is a very wide range from 1100-1500 (18 m- 3 years) so I thought I would see what most here think is a good weight/age to start at.

I'm in no rush to breed so I won't breed any of mine till 1800 g +

Thanks
Eric

PS: If there is already a post on here going over this I'm sorry I didn't find it

[shhhli]

now, i am very novice, but i've read in the faq that 500g/1ft, or bare minimum of 1500g for a female (no powerfeeding). i'd be afraid of anything less considering it is all i have seen.
i would think less would be harder for a female to develop..she needs that fat to create eggs, correct?

like i said, i'm not 100% but that is what i have always seen and am going by.

[Petboy15]

Generally Id go for 1500 grams, but if someone is 1400, Id probably breed them as well if they look good. But I wouldnt breed a 1 year old at 1500 grams. I would however, breed a girl who is 1,200 and stocky, and like 5 or 6 years old and just small by nature. So it really depends.

[Thomas Jones]

You can not always go by the weight. I have 3 or so females that are 3-7 years of age and 2500 grams plus that will not be breeding this season. They are to small. Then I have a 6 years + female that is approx 1368 grams and she will be breeding this season.If you get the females and raised them from babies they should be ready to breed by there 3rd winter. Some do it sooner. I have results will vary. Some females are just bigger than others and will go sooner than the rest. Some are small like the 1368 gram female she will go but she also has small eggs and the babies hatch out small.
Nothing beats hands on experience or trial and error. Make sure the female looks thick and full bodied. If they look the least bit skinny do not breed them.
Good luck this season.

[SnakieMom]

I'm curious about my girl....When I got her, either in March or April of this year,
she was about 300 grams or so, and roughly 18-22 inches.
She's grown to about 900-950 grams and aprox 40 inches since then.

(She (and both males) have recently been moved into a rack about
a month ago. Since being in tubs (vs. tanks) they have each eaten one small
rat a week, and rather voraciously!)

SO....my question is this..... I want to breed her, and she'll be a year old
next spring. If she keeps eating and packing on weight, would it be ok to breed her next summer?
I know some people like to wait till their a few years old, but, will it hurt her in any way if I bred her then?
(Entirely providing she's heavy and healthy enough to do so)

Thanks for your input.

[WingedWolfPsion]

I think the important thing to keep in mind is that breeding a snake that is too small, or too low in weight, drastically increases the risk of egg-binding and death. To error on the side of caution, just wait longer--older, larger females lay larger clutches, hold their weight better while breeding, and have a lower risk of problems. What's more, a female that is bred too young may be high-risk not just that first year, but also in subsequent years, from everything I've read on the subject.

That's why, after doing all of the research, I'm setting my minimum weight at 1500 grams for female ball pythons.

[SatanicIntention]

Females that are fat also have a very increased risk of egg-binding and death, as well as throwing slugs, throwing small clutches, etc.

You can't just say that only the small, underweight females have this risk. I only had 3 females lay clutches this year. One is an 02-03 and is probably over 5 feet, but yet she was only 2600g at the beginning of the season. She was a bit thin in my opinion, but she laid 7 perfectly calcified, big eggs in June and is 250g away from her original before-breeding weight right now. Heaven forbid she only gets 4-5 medium mice a week.
My other female is barely 4 feet but is 2300g. She's a bit overweight(YES, she only gets 3-4 mice a week and is a chunky butt) and while her eggs were big, they weren't as nicely calcified as the other female's, and the surface of the eggs were a bit bumpy(hatchlings were smaller too).
The last female was a rescue who I considered underweight, and is an 03 or 04 and was around 1500-1600 when I first got her. She gave 5 perfectly calcified, albeit small, eggs. 3 of the babies are huge now and 2 are still around 35-45g.

What if you had a female that was just a small build? Say an 03 who was 1000-1200g? If she's healthy and has adequate fat reserves for her size, then why not? Not every snake is going to make it to 1500g.

And SnakieMom: NO, she's not old enough. See how heavy she is at 3 years old. Also.. Wait until she hits that teenage angst age(around 1100-1200g), then see how well she grows. She's definitely not going to be ready to breed at only a year old.

[WingedWolfPsion]

I wouldn't breed an '03 that was only 1000 to 1200 grams, unless she was setting a new record for shortness, and had an excellent and reliable appetite. There would have to be some really pressing reason I needed a clutch from her, too.
I would probably not want to hang on to an abnormally small female in the long run. I'm sure most folks meant normal-sized snakes, though, not ones that are exceptionally short or long.
I think it would be too easy for a newbie to convince themselves that their snake is just short, so it's ok to breed at 1000 grams instead of waiting another year. That's the danger in advising folks to breed at lower weights. Someone with a lot of experience can probably tell whether a snake's weight and size are appropriate for breeding at its age.
It's hard to picture an adult BP so small that it never reaches 1500 grams. I'd almost call that a form of dwarfism.

[MarkS]

Both weight and age are important, however I personally believe that age is the more important of the two. I've produced several nice clutches from females that were more then three years old but less then 1100 grams. It depends on the individual. Some are just small and always will be no matter how much you feed them.

Mark

[JASBALLS]

The smallest female I ever got egss from was 800g. 3 healthy eggs..