Just to add something that hasn't been touched on, or maybe I missed it...

Another thing to consider is clutch size. It has been shown by Jas and other breeders that ball pythons can breed smaller than what has been the "industry standard" for the past number of years, but I don't think there's any questioning that these smaller females spit out much smaller clutches than the bigger girls...is that the general outcome that you guys have?

I think that some data on the female's size vs the # of eggs and weight of hatchlings would be the most useful information for someone deciding whether they should breed their females at a certain size.

I think that the general trend of things is that the larger your female is, the larger number of eggs you get and the hatchlings are larger out of the egg.

So there's really no reason to debate whether or not ball pythons CAN breed smaller...it has been shown that they absolutely can, and can be done without any added health risks - the real discussion here is whether or not you should - and that depends a lot on the individual breeder, the stock they are working with, and what they want to produce.

If I were someone working with a recessive or double recessive project...I'd want the largest female possible laying the largest number of eggs for obvious reasons...