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I am expecting a 9 egg clutch to start pipping in about 5-10 days. 9 good eggs and 2 slugs. Looks like all 9 good eggs should hatch. Either will be Yellow Bellies x normal or Sulfur Mojave x normal. I am hoping the little guy on the far right (700 grams now) is the sire.

What is the biggest clutch you got this year?

No substrate incubation. 100% hatch rate. Phet Caramet Albinos. (7.4)
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Louis Kirkland
Cornerstone Reptiles

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Louis Kirkland
Cornerstone Reptiles

and all just came out of the egg yesterday

this girl pulled the weight for all my other females that ended up not laying this year.

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Misty Sprouse Ball Pythons

13
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http://www.jasballpythons.com./

Was it a lucky 13? That actually beats my all time record of 11. What hatched out John?

Dave

Same as JAS. 13
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Thanks and Take Care
Thomas Jones
Thomas@rockinreptiles.com

15

BRAGGING! OK, well I did ask. That might be the biggest clutch I have ever heard of. What hatched out and how big was the female? Was the sire a proven breeder, old male, or what?

Dave

In 2006 I received a clutch of 14 eggs which was my largest clutch until this year. This year I received a clutch of 15! This seemed to be the year of the larger clutches with 10-13 being quite common.

Here are some pics of the 15 egg clutch from Lesser x Normal.

These guys hatched just before the Toronto Show and when I took them out of the incubator they were already in shed. Here are some pics of them after they shed.

The Males. 4 Lessers and 3 Normals.

The Females. 6 Lessers and 2 normals.

All of them together. I wish they would have sat still but that's not the life for a baby ball.

I'd like to add that I don't have very good luck getting my very large females to produce eggs for me. The female that laid the above clutch is the largest female I own. She is very close to 4800 grams when not recovering from laying eggs and almost 6 feet in length. In the 8 years that I've owned her she's produced for me 3 times. The most reliable producing females for me seem to be in the 2500-2800 gram range. If they are smaller or larger they don't seem to want to produce as good for some reason (for me anyways).

Corey

Corey...How big was the female?
Kevin Stoltz
www.KMSReptiles.com

She's in around 4800 grams when she's upto full size.

Corey

Corey,

I've also not had as good of luck getting the big girls to go as the medium ones. After a couple of misses I started loaning them out and after a couple more misses my two biggest went this year out on loans (9 huge and 13 eggs).

On another forum Adam Wysocki posted to the effect that big girls need bred by multiple males to ovulate. One of mine was bred to two males for the first time this year and the other only one. It would be very interesting why that would be the case (I'm picturing an anaconda breeding ball here) but I think I'll plan on trying it from here on out. Using multiple males might make it difficult for small breeders to use a big girl for recessive projects but maybe we can get creative until a paternity test is available. I was thinking of trying to work out a deal to breed the girl that laid 13 to both an ivory and a clown next year. That way any non yellow bellies would be het clowns. In the past I've been very stubborn as to which one male I wanted to breed each female and even without the ovulation angle I've got to think the risk of a dud male would cut my odds.

That's really interesting. My only up-to-size female this year is about 3300 g normally, but she produced for me last year (first clutch for us both) and she's already ovulated and is in POS now this year.

How long did it take for your big girls to start becoming irregular breeders? Just how big were they when it started happening? And how old are your big girls? Did it happen the year after their weight plateaued, or was it a few years after and they'd slowly gained an extra hundred grams or so?
Just curious. Let us know how the multiple males theory works for you!

My girl was only bred twice this season - once by accident a few months ago, and then one 'intentional' lockup a couple weeks before she began ovulating. I'm just worried it won't be so easy next year to get my 'big momma' knocked up again!

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

I've only got the two and thought it had something to do with being too fat until I heard the idea of needing multiple males for big girls and reports like Corey's.

So my personal experience isn't much to go by and unfortunately I don’t keep weight records but here it is:

1996 female that laid 6 eggs each in 2001 and 2002. She has been a good eater as long as I remember. The 6 eggs in 2002 might have weighed around 660 grams which by the 1/3 rule should have put her prelay weight around 1980 grams. I think she put on weight quickly after that, and especially after not producing in 2003 with a male that didn't finally successfully produce until the next year. I don't know what she weighed when she finally produced again out on breeding loan this year (after 5 years!) but she produced 13 eggs so is a big girl. I’m pretty sure she was well up into the 3,000 gram range in 2004 which I think was the first year I loaned her out.

An estimated 1997 female I picked up at a pet store at maybe about 1,300 grams in the summer of 2001. She ate very well right off the bat and grew considerably before failing to produce the first year I tried with her, 2002. I stubbornly tired the same unproven male with her for two years (the same one that didn't get the above girl to produce in 2003). I then sent her out on a breeding loan for a few years. She finally produced what I believe to be her first clutch this year on her 6th year attempt. In spite of the fact that she has been an extraordinary eater the entire time she could possibly have been imported as a young adult. At least it seems unlikely she was captive bred as she has finally proven to have what seems to be a new inheritable appearance.

".......any non yellowbellies would be het clowns."

How could one guarantee that??

I've produced 2 different Co-Doms in the same clutch by using different males, but I wouldn't think a person could say for 100% that they are hets when dealing with a co-dom/recessive breeding!!

Interesting topic!! I may have to do some "dinking" this year!!

Any offspring from the ivory should be yellow belly because he is homozygous yellow belly and doesn't have the normal version of the yellow belly gene to give.

However, that might not be the best choice of a homozygous co-dominant for this breeding because I get the idea that yellow belly is so varied there might be some genetic yellow bellies that look close to normal. Maybe a super pastel would be better.

But the basic idea is if you use a homozygous co-dominant male (I know everyone doesn't have those – I certainly don’t) and then you should be able to identify his offspring as visible morphs and with only one recessive homozygous male any normals are his.

Sorry man, I was thinking YB, not Ivory!! No wonder somehing wasn't right......LMAO!!!

I got 13 eggs out of my 4500 gram female. On the down side there were only 8 viable eggs from the clutch.

Brian

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Brian Gundy

www.for-goodness-snakes.com

DAMN Brian, that is one huge girl! I wonder who has the biggest ball in captivity and how large it is...
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~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

Here is a pic of mine


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Thanks and Take Care
Thomas Jones
Thomas@rockinreptiles.com

we received 10 eggs from a awesome banded female. She produced 2.2 Banded Goblin (RDR line Yellow Belly), 0.1 normal, and 2.3 Banded offspring. The best part was the day she laid her eggs she started right back on medium rats and has now gained all her weight back from the season. Here is a pic of her breeding with the Goblin male.

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....I would rather have a Bottle in front of me.....than a Frontal Lobotomy....

Rob Trenor
RK Reptiles
www.rkreptiles.com
www.rkreptiles.net
www.ballpythonmorphs.net

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Do you have any photos of the Banded YellowBelly/Goblin offspring?

With the YB gene's history of taking things up a notch, I'm curious to see how YB improved the Bandeds...

Congrats and thanks for any info.

BB
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"Have you hugged your drummer today?" --- Me

..from the first clutch.Which is what the second female layed as well,but with a 1300 gram advantage.
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Charles Glaspie

11 eggs was the largest clutch, 100% het for SK Axanthic.
In terms of quality, a 4 egg clutch with 3 good eggs. I got 1.1 super pastels and 1 normal female.

My first clutch ever produced 10 fertile eggs from a 2500 gram normal girl -- all of which hatched. That is not the kicker. The best part of my first clutch story falls under the " It is better to be lucky than good" camp (the Ball Gods certainly know I am NOT good!!!). I proved my captive hatched male as dominant to produce the "Reaper" (thanks Josh for the name idea -- which really does work). When/If I make the super, I expect it should be rather "Grim".

We got 15 eggs early in the season from a black pastel X normal breeding. One egg went bad one month into incubation. We ended up with 3.3 black pastels and 5.3 normals. This was from a 4000 gram wild caught female we acquired in 2005.

Hello, 16 eggs from normal x ?. Andrew

I had 50 in one clutch, Na na na boo boo, I mean litter...

Look at these things! Monster Tail Hypos and Jungles and Monster Tails and oh my!!!

50 in one litter is a mess of them but, I have been trying for a litter from this female for four years. Finally!
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