Opinions on breeding young / small females

[Wh00h0069]

Aint it a shame most of the guys that have the experience to edumacate us on the odds of breeding young females and the rate of fatal or injurious mishaps is severely lacking in online forums?

Yes it is.

[stevenkeogh]

I personally believe that it is better that most don't have the experiences to share with the rest. Shows restraint and commitment to upholding a higher standard of treatment to the animals that we are claiming to have profound respect for.
I for one will never have the first-hand knowledge of whether a 1 kilo female can successfully breed.
There's always next year.
-Steven

[Wh00h0069]

I personally believe that it is better that most don't have the experiences to share with the rest. Shows restraint and commitment to upholding a higher standard of treatment to the animals that we are claiming to have profound respect for.
I for one will never have the first-hand knowledge of whether a 1 kilo female can successfully breed.
There's always next year.
-Steven

I thought that forums were here for discussion. I am trying to discuss with fellow herpers to find out if breeding small / young females is harmful or not.

[stevenkeogh]

I thought that forums were here for discussion. I am trying to discuss with fellow herpers to find out if breeding small / young females is harmful or not.

And my post was a reply to the one stating that they thought it was a shame that the people with the first-hand experience to share were not here to do so.
Maybe, but it is much better than having multitudes of individuals possibly putting snakes in jeopardy by breeding them under weight.
If this is a discussion then why is the validity of my post being questioned?
You wanted opinions, there is mine.
If you are just looking for reassurance when breeding young females then maybe you should have posted something along those lines.
-Steven

[stevenkeogh]

If there was absolutely no danger I'm pretty confident that there would be no 1500g guideline.
I should clarify, the 1500g rule is the consensus up here in Canada.
Seems that the forums frequented by mostly Americans prefer 1200g.
They are your animals, nobody is going to be able to stop you from endangering any of them. So I hope for your success.
-Steven

[Wh00h0069]

If there was absolutely no danger I'm pretty confident that there would be no 1500g guideline.
I should clarify, the 1500g rule is the consensus up here in Canada.
Seems that the forums frequented by mostly Americans prefer 1200g.
They are your animals, nobody is going to be able to stop you from endangering any of them. So I hope for your success.
-Steven

I'm sorry. I must have mis-read your original post. I thought you were saying that I should not have posted this discussion, because I was somehow mistreating my animals by breeding them young / small, and condoning others to mistreat their animals. If that is not the case, I apologize.

[Oxylepy]

I'd breed them if it was breeding season and the snake was 1500g or larger, regardless of age. And if a snake was 2 years old. plump, but short and was only 1200g, I'd breed her.

[Jason Bowden]

I shoot for the 40 inch mark with my up and coming females. If they don't make it, they get another year.

[BPHERP]

In the wild, they will lock and produce clutches when ready, so trying them at marginally reasonable sizes is not a bad thing; if they are ready, they will, if not, then they wont.

BrandonsBalls

[WingedWolfPsion]

This is not the wild.

We want our girls to be as healthy as possible, and most of us want them to produce large, healthy clutches each year.
In the wild, a female will breed as soon as she is physically able to do so--this may not be ideal for her body, and it will probably result in a tiny clutch. She will run into a male sooner in areas where ball pythons are very common--that means competition. By having a smaller clutch, her offspring may not compete with each other as much over available resources--obviously the area supports many ball pythons well, so they also may not have as much outside pressure from predation.

It's a winning strategy, in the wild. If a female is much larger and older when she encounters a male, she'll lay a big clutch, because ball pythons are rare in that area, and there may be less competition for food, but more predators around.

Or perhaps not. But because it makes sense, and roughly matches the experiences of breeders, I'll be waiting until my girls are larger to breed them for the first time. I'd rather have 10 eggs per year for 20 years after waiting an extra year or so than have 4 eggs per year for 20 years, but get them started one year earlier.

What you prefer is, of course, up to you, and your mileage may vary. I'm sure that genetics and development play some role in clutch size as well. But it's only logical that environment is an influence.