As far as cheynei I think the Barkers list sexual maturity at 140-150cm. While I have no doubt that this is accurate, my 140-150 cm jungle females do not look ready to breed. Mine are usually closer to 2 meters at least before I attempt. Mine grow long and skinny until 5.5 feet or so, in fact one of my '02 females is over six feet but just a hair over 1100 grams. Body composition is a much better indicator IMO. For comparison- this year I have 4 females that have or are about to drop- their empty weights / production are as follows:

2250 grams-15 eggs

2850 grams- 17 eggs

3000 grams (laying on her eggs at the moment, around 25- laid 27 last year- all good)

3785 grams- still gravid



Hope this helps, as for coastals I would use the same criteria, (mature muscle mass) but I don't have the same data set/ experience. I do however feel (my opinion) that while coastals can get bigger that cheynei, they don't neccesarily get bigger, and they can probably breed at the same size as a jungle. I did attempt to breed one female coastal this season that was around 2kg but she never copulated.

[ Show Entire Thread ]