I have a big female that first produced in 2001 and then again in 2002. She is one of these balls that thinks she is a burm and will eat most any time and several rodents if you let her. In 2003 I put her with an unmotivated male (a 66% het caramel that didn't get any of the many females he was placed with gravid until he was 5 years old in 2004). I blame the male for her not producing in 2003 but of course I really don't know. However, with no clutch in 2003 and her being such a good eater she was very fat by 2004 and again didn't produce. Again it was an unproven male (50% chance het clown) so I don't know who's fault it was but I tend to suspect the problem might have been her being so fat (I've heard several reports of fat girls not producing before). So now I'm worried that giving this particular good feeder a year off (due to a lame male) actually got her out of condition to breed again. Of course I could have just feed her less after missing and that is actually what I finally did in preparation for this year and she was seen breeding so hopefully she is back on track.

I have another one that I think I got too fat before first breeding. She she is my other garbage disposal type (i.e. NOT your typical balls) and was offered the first couple years to the same unmotivated possible het caramel male. Without clutches she also got very fat looking and continued not to breed even with other males in more recent years. She is out on breeding loan now but I think also slimmed down some this last year and was finally seen breeding so I have hopes that she will produce eggs in time for what I think will be her 8th birthday.

I guess my point is that with some super good eating girls with a tendency to get fat giving them a year off might put them at risk to become obese without special care (i.e. avoid the temptation to use them as a garbage disposal). Of course an underweight female shouldn’t be bred and perhaps even an average one could benefit from a rest from time to time but maybe with those really piggy ones it's best to keep in the rhythm of a clutch every year since they are building up the reserves.

I do have a more moderate sized girl that is a very good eater after her clutches and she has produced 5 years in a row with her biggest clutch being in 2004 (no bad eggs yet either). I’ve considered giving her a year off but she got back to her pre-lay weight very quickly so she was bred again for 2005. I consider her one of the “average” girls as far as tendency to get fat but perhaps she would with a skipped year. I’ll keep an eye on her and if she seems even a little slow on gaining weight back one of these years I’ll give her a rest.

I’ve only tried the maternal incubation once but for what it’s worth she ate very well after and produced the next year while another one that I removed the eggs from didn’t produce the next year. Too small of a sample size to really draw any conclusions other than that it’s possible for a maternal incubating female to recover and produce the next year.

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