Opinions on breeding young / small females

[Wh00h0069]

I would rather wait till shes at least 2-3 years and 1500+ grams. I think, whats the hurry? If you are in it for the hobby then it will be worth the wait then you know you have a nice healthy mature female who will give you a nice healthy clutch of eggs that will hopefully hatch some good sized healthy babies. Sounds like more fun that way then breeding to small and then worrying about the female. I dont power feed for the same reason. I want my girls big and muscular and in perfect shape to have babies, not fat from over feeding just so they look big. Each one of my girls is a pet not just for breedng and Id feel awful if one got sick becuase i bred her to soon.

The big hurry is creating a new morph that I do not have, and also producing morphs to sell. For example, this year I have a pastel het ghost female that is approximately 1200 grams and 1.5 years old. I also have a pastel ghost to breed to her. Some people would wait to breed her until the following year. I decided to breed her this year. If she goes for me, then I could possibly produce super pastel ghosts this season as opposed to waiting until next season. I am also in the same boat with a het pied female and a pied male. If she goes for me, then I could produce pieds this season. I do not feel that it in any way harms the females. So why wait? In my opinion, if the females are ready, then they will give me eggs. If they are not, then they will not.

[rabernet]

The big hurry is creating a new morph that I do not have, and also producing morphs to sell. For example, this year I have a pastel het ghost female that is approximately 1200 grams and 1.5 years old. I also have a pastel ghost to breed to her. Some people would wait to breed her until the following year. I decided to breed her this year. If she goes for me, then I could possibly produce super pastel ghosts this season as opposed to waiting until next season. I am also in the same boat with a het pied female and a pied male. If she goes for me, then I could produce pieds this season. I do not feel that it in any way harms the females. So why wait? In my opinion, if the females are ready, then they will give me eggs. If they are not, then they will not.

I'm curious - did she go for you this year?

[Wh00h0069]

I'm curious - did she go for you this year?

Hi, no she didn't. I tried to breed three 1200 gram females this season. Two did not go for me and one did. The pastel het ghost female never produced follicles, or at least ones that I could feel; although, she did lock with my pastel ghost male a few times. The het pied female did produce follicles, but the male was not ready. The yellow belly that did give me eggs produced four perfect eggs that are still in the bator.

[rabernet]

Thanks Eddie!

[Wh00h0069]

Thanks Eddie!

You're welcome.

[boasandballs]

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?

lol, it's because we are all trying to save those small females. No. I have breed small females (1100-1200) grams and big females (2000-up). Now with the use of the ultrasound I can see that a female is producing follicles and thus I feel her body feels it is safe to produce young.

The female that was the smallest was 1100 grams going into the breeding season. She continued to eat very well and produced some beautiful bumble bees several years ago. I she got up over 1200 grams before she stopped eating. The following season she took the year off and them produced again each year after that. I have 2 of the babies from that first year and know where one other is and they are all doing very well.

I believe that in the wild the females would be able to eat when ever they wanted and as much as they want. They will produce follicles when they are ready to reproduce and attract a male when it is time. If it is not time, and their bodies would be in jeopardy if they were to become gravid they would not.

ps. I have only lost 1 to egg binding, one other became egg bound and now I do not breed her at all. We have aproxamatly 350 ball pythons 100+ boas, and lots other reptiles.

[Jay_Bunny]

While I'm very tempted to just throw a male in with my normal girl, I will wait. She is approaching 1500g and might actually be there right now (haven't weighed her since her last meal), but she was 1800g last season and dropped down to 1300 after laying eggs. I want her to at least 1700g (if I'm feeling particularly patient, I will wait till 1800g) before introducing a male.

Now, 1500g is a general rule for me, but if I ever have a female that I am really itching to breed and the season is starting and I put her on the scale and she weighs in at 1400g, I'm going to try and breed her.

A few people in this thread have said they have experienced smaller eggs and therefore, smaller hatchlings. My first ever hatchling weighed in at 37g at hatching. Very small little guy and I'm still struggling to get him started. I would much rather breed a medium to larger female (1400+) and get a nice sized clutch with normal sized hatchlings than get tiny babies.

[Wh00h0069]

An update from this breedings season. I did not do to well and only four girls produce for me. The girls weight in grams and year born were: 1200 and '07, 1600 and '06, 2500 and '05, and 2500 and '05. The two 2500 gram girls were second year producers. The 1200 gram girl laid four perfect eggs. One of the 2500 gram girls laid eight perfect eggs. The 1600 gram girl laid six eggs, but become egg-bound on the last egg. The other 2500 gram girl laid five eggs, but became egg-bound on the last three eggs. Luckily I was able to get the eggs out of the two females, and they are doing fine now. I have no idea why the two females became egg-bound, but I do not think that it has anything to do with weight or age. They were able to get the other eggs out fine, and one of the girls was 2500 grams, which is way over the suggested breeding weight.