This is my 3rd year in a row trying to produce motleys and I finally produced a couple! I tried breeding Norman Jr. at 18-22 months old and he showed absolutely no interest in the ladies despite being a good muscular 4.5' in length. From my experience, it seems 18 month old males breed and actually produce viable litters only about 50% of the time, regardless of size. A lot of 18 month old males will court, but whether or not you get a good viable litter is a different story.
At 2 1/2 years old, last year Norman Jr. was a aggressive breeder and bred 2 nice big normal girls. The first was my nicest and biggest girl who had a nice ovulation and looked good and everything, but dropped slugs and a gooey mess early and then died a couple days later. Man, this breeding stuff can be hard on the females! The second girl he bred also had a nice ovulation and went full term dropping 13 slugs and 12 normals and no motleys!
This year Norman Jr. was again a aggresive breeder and bred a sunglow female first. She had a nice ovulation and looked good and showed all the signs of a potentially good litter. This morning 117 days after ovulating she dropped about 20 slugs, 2 normal stillborns, and 1 motley het albino and 1 hypo motley het albino, both of which are healthy and moving around fine. I'm disappointed, but happy to have these 2 little motleys that will not be going anywhere! It will be fun watching these 2 color up as they grow! I'll post some better pics after they shed.
