Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone else notice.Clutch sizes seem to be getting larger.If you read some older books.They say average clutch is 4-6 eggs.I have been following the forums.And have been seeing clutches of 5-11 here lately.Anyone have any thoughts on this? Or is it just me?
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kevin
36 pythons and boas and 4 lizards

My clutch was 3 good eggs, 1 slug. There's small clutches being laid too, you just don't see those posted as much.

~jenny
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"The python has, and I fib no fibs,
318 pairs of ribs.
In stating this I place reliance
On a seance with one who died for science
This figure is sworn to and attested,
He counted them while being digested."
~Ogden Nash

jenny.thegreenes.org

"If you're happy and you know it,
Bomb Iraq!
If you cannot find Osama,
Bomb Iraq!
If the terrorists are frisky,
Pakistan is looking shifty,
North Korea is too risky,
Bomb Iraq!

I agree! Here's mine

I have always had, what seemed like to me, a rather logical view of the subject of the viability of animals in captivity. So here goes my 2 cents.

I think these animals that we keep in captivity tend to be more prolific because they live in ideal conditions. They do not have to hunt for food, worry about predators, deal with diseases transmitted by mites or internal parasites, or a lack of food in the dry season. If just seems logical to me that they produce more eggs because they get bigger and have a healthier diet.

I amy be totally off base, but maybe someone will agree with me on this one.

I'd tend to agree with that. They are just healthier all round so it stands to reason, at least to me, that they would produce more eggs, and healthier young. There are just too many variables in the wild that will affect everything about a snakes life and overall health. Just my small take on the matter.

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

and the rodents we feed them are nutritional/fat powerhouses compared to what they'd be getting in the wild

Also keep in mind that there was a time before morphs when there was not much interest in ball pythons. Most animals where imported adults and very hard to get to feed much less breed. Then they got the idea of digging up eggs and importing hatchlings that did much better. Not long after that the morphs started showing up (I'm sure the two where related) and suddenly there were captive bred baby ball pythons in numbers for the first time and of course also all the import hatchlings. So the vast majority of captive breeding female ball pythons are young. Hardly any are more than 15 years and most just barely starting to reach past the “just getting started” 5 - 7 years. Some of those books may have been written when most clutches where first clutches. Now that we may have peaked the demographics of breeding female ball pythons might not be so skewed toward young animals.