Reptile & Amphibian Forums

not breeding every female every year. I've heard and fully believe it to be better for the females. Not losing so much weight and having to put it back on so quickly year after year.

Well, with this years failures, my male Lefty not doing his part, I had four females wth no clutches at all, no babies or slugs or anything. Those four females are absolutely HUGE. They even went through the same not eating period as the gravid females. just didn't lose any weight at the end and went right back to feeding. I do mean huge, they are larger then they have ever been. And not all of these ladies are young adults, they are from 93, 94 and two from 00. BTW, the other day I ran snakemeasurer on a pic of Petunia (93) and she is 6' 7". I also have the trio I picked up from Howard Leong, he had already been breeding the females every other year and his adults are just as large.

I have also heard the larger females can have significantly larger clutches and/or larger babies. Hmmmm...

Anyone else have any comments, thoughts, experiences on the subject?
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
12.24 BRB
11.13 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

just my thought.. giving birth is certainly taxing on the animals... breeding them every other year will only make sure they are 100% back up to strength and health, and you can do it over time instead of rushing it.

keep enough females around.. do half on the even years, and the other half on the odd years..
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

Dave Barker wrote something a while back that was interesting. he believes that the reproductie potential for any given female on any given year is determined two years prior. At any given time, females may have three sets of follicles developing; this years, next years and the year after. He says that if a female is in good health this year, she will begin building a healthy foundation for the babies that will be born two years from now. Based on this information, he recommends giving breeder females every third year off.

I think there are probably more than one mechanism for determining the viability of developing follicles. Maybe there is some long term mechanism that turns on follicles for two years down the road in times of good health. As those follicles get closer to commiting to become snakes, there must be a more short term feedback that says, yes, the female can devote fat reserves or ,no, this animal doesn't have enough to give.

Here is what Dave Barker wrote. Don't know if it applies to BRBs or not but I think much of the physiology is the same

http://www.kingsnake.com/viridis/murdoch1.html

I like to go every other year. Although in 2006 I had a female who looked great who went the year before. She has earned a nice long rest.
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Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com