Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, kingfolk,

I've read a couple different points of view regarding breeder females, namely, one argument is that it's good to give the female a break every few years or so and the other argument being that if the females are going to ovulate anyway, it's better to breed them.

Anyone do long-term comparison studies on this?

If so, which is better?

From your question, your assuming all husbandry is alike. And your assuming all females(of many kinds of kings) are alike. Which is wrong in both cases.

What a female does is based on her genetic potential and her "personal" support. That is, the support that particular female is givin, over her life. The question is, does a particular female have husbandry that allows her to produce at the lower areas of her potential, or at the upper end of her potential.

So theres no answer for you, one person may not support their animals in a way another keeper does. They are also working with different individual snakes and possibly different species.

Keepers with experience will just their husbandry on how much stress reproduction puts on a female. Some clutches are easy and take little out of a female, other clutches seem to take a lot out of a female. Remember, this is year to year, with the same keeper and the same female. If you allow a lot of the first, the female will breed for a long period and muliticlutch. IF you cause lots of stress, your female may not live very long. Cheers

"Keepers with experience will just their husbandry on how much stress reproduction puts on a female. Some clutches are easy and take little out of a female, other clutches seem to take a lot out of a female. Remember, this is year to year, with the same keeper and the same female. If you allow a lot of the first, the female will breed for a long period and muliticlutch. IF you cause lots of stress, your female may not live very long. Cheers"

Wowsers, excellent point, which is I guess why I brought it up: When my female white-sided everglades rat dropped a clutch, she looked amazingly well--quite unlike a spent kingsnake I had many moons ago. And the white-sided surprised me with a double-clutch (with no further breeding, mind you). Again, she had excellent body weight afterward and seemed unphased by the whole experience.

But I do think that you've given an answer. If she seems taxed--for whatever reason, give her a break; if not, let 'er breed.

I actually only want one more breeding out of her, and wanted to know if I would be harming her by "putting her out to pasture" so she could relax her remaining years away, sipping margaritas by the seashore.

If you're still reading this, do you know how we devised our incubation technique? Trial and error with humidity and temps? Or was a study ever done on an actual wild nest?

Yeah, you've caught me--I'm talking about a rat snake. But you kingfolk have such cool responses!

Thanks!

"I actually only want one more breeding out of her, and wanted to know if I would be harming her by "putting her out to pasture" so she could relax her remaining years away, sipping margaritas by the seashore."

Frank's response was right on (as usual). Just want to give a bit of caution here. If you stop mating a previously bred female, you run the risk of her developing infertile clutches anyway-particularly if she is brumated, and fed heavily. These infertile eggs are more difficult to pass than fertile ones, and could lead to egg binding.
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Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Thanks for that insight! I never would have figured on that happening.

So I'm guessing not brumating will hopefully reduce the unfertile eggs from forming. But as she's from a south Florida climate, chances are it'll still happen . . .

That's right. If it were me, I'd just go ahead and breed her-unless I had some compelling reason not to....
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Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....