a qeustion about breeding

[CamStatic]

I was just wondering about how often a ball python female can breed? I mean, do you give her a year break from breeding, or do you breed her every season? I've heard some people say that you should give her 1 year break, but what do you guys do? What do you think is best?

[MDB]

I habe heard of many breeders, breeding them one year and then giving them the next year off, and then back to breeding the next year. Personaly I am using two years breeding one year off and so on. I feel that as long as you are giving them a break within 2-3 years they stay healthy. Hope this helps

[LadyOhh]

Depending on the female and how she looks after breeding gives me an idea of how and if I want to use her the next season or not...

I've done back to back seasons breedings, and I have done year on - year off.

It really depends on the animal...

But to be safe, if you can't tell, I'd give them a year off.

[Bill Buchman]

2 on and 1 off is the the best way to go. Back to back will work well in most cases if you FEED THEM A LOT for about 2 months right after they lay in order to get there weight back on and then some.

[Gloryhound]

I don't have any experience to bring to bare on the subject currently, but I do have the plan we came up with. We weigh our snakes on a regular basis. We plan on only breeding the female the following year if she excedes her heaviest weight prior to laying eggs the previous year. We figure this gives as a minimum makes sure they have recovered to prior breeding levels from the previous year and even have some additional growth. If they don't make it back to the weight they get the year off.

With that said we may have to wait and see what happens next year with those we are breeding this year and change up how we do things. Also I think depending what else in our collection is ready to breed may result in us not breeding some females that do make it back to weight as a means of keeping babies to a managable number. If things go right we may have 20 or more babies this year. Have to see how much work goes into making sure they grow up healthy. Depending on those results we may decide a max load for us based on that. If everything goes right we may have 12 or more females up to weight and age. That is a lot of eggs to deal with.

[nixer]

[QUOTE=Gloryhound;943104]I don't have any experience to bring to bare on the subject currently, but I do have the plan we came up with. We weigh our snakes on a regular basis. We plan on only breeding the female the following year if she excedes her heaviest weight prior to laying eggs the previous year. We figure this gives as a minimum makes sure they have recovered to prior breeding levels from the previous year and even have some additional growth. If they don't make it back to the weight they get the year off.
[\QUOTE]

i hope you not only weigh but also measure because they can be the same weight but less girth if they had growth length wise.

i have one that produced last year but wont be this year shes too skinny, but the rest will be breeding this year