Posted by:
Pit_fan
at Sun Mar 14 11:34:13 2010 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Pit_fan ]
In the wild, there are those that live to reproductive maturity (size) and those that don't. Mortality is the only thing in the life cycle of a wild snake that happens prematurely. In my experience working with timber rattlesnakes years ago, not every female of reproductive age was bred every year. Only about 60% in a good year when food was plentiful ( a function of condition plus size and age). During years when food was less abundant (generally lagging poor acorn crop years, 15 - 30% of the aged females would be bred and of those, fewer would carry all the way to term and produce a litter. In our living rooms and as long as our snakes feed well, there are far fewer limitations...
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RE: Premature Breeding of Female Pits? - Pit_fan, Sun Mar 14 11:34:13 2010