Quote Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion View Post
Let's apply just a tiny bit of logic and and the laws of natural selection to that 'wild snakes' scenario. I'm not saying this is how it is...but it's definitely smart, and nature is often smart.

If the population of ball pythons in an area is high, then the likelihood of young females encountering a male is also very high--so they will breed when they are young and small...and will lay smaller clutches...contributing less to an already high population, and perhaps making it more likely that their offspring will survive when competition for food is high.

If the population of ball pythons in an area is quite low, then females will be more likely to encounter their first male when they are older and larger--and so they will lay a larger clutch, and will have more offspring to eat more plentiful prey items, and survive what might be a higher predation rate.

This makes sense to me.
Using your theory I could also make the following logical arguement for another practice looked down on:

If feeding is good and the girl grows fast then she should lay more eggs due to a plentiful food source. If food is hard to come by then smaller clutches.

With that said maybe power feeding a snake is the way to make it have larger clutches or at least feeding more often than we do!

(The above statement in no way reflects my own opinion. It is simply being used as a supporter for an arguement.)