Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have heard people tell me that bigger ball python females will lay more eggs then a smaller ready to breed female would.. But then I have heard that often bigger females lay the same amount of eggs as a normal breeder size female would just bigger eggs.. I ask because I have a chance to pick up a extrememly large female ball close to 6ft and 4500grams obviously she is a little exspencive that's why I'm wondering is it worth it? What size clutch could I exspect from the female I'm considering purchaseing she is large a 2003 hatchling virgin. Any input on this would be great.
Now a genetic question
I noticed people are selling cinnamons and pastel cinnamons at the same price are they basically the same I know Pastel X Cinnamon is suppost to create a pewter can anyone explain that to me??
THANKS in advance hope I don't cause any wars.
Jbugg

before you buy the snake, get it probed in front of you. if they can't prove it's a female i would let that offer pass by.

Cinny and Cinnamon Pastel are the same thing, the hobby has dropped the pastel and gone with just cinnamon. much like the Platinum Lesser, everyone just goes with Lesser now.

Pitoon

to be a female. I've never had a male get anywhere near that size. My guess would be a girl that size could reasonable be expected to lay 8-10 eggs...maybe more. I've routinely had 9 - 11 egg clutches from females smaller than that...

She is large I have seen her in person its a good friend of mines.. I was estimating the weight but she is 5ft 10inchs I just called the guy and had him measure her.. I'm going to pick her up this afternoon I'll get some pictures of her up this evening she is large I don't even thing she will fit comfortably in my rack lol
Jbugg

I think it was lavenderalbino who posted that they had one of their monstrous females lay 17 eggs.

actually is was FGS (Brian Goody) it was a 15yr old ball if i'm not mistaken.

Pitoon

At that size it would be nice to have just for the novelty of it.

But why would someone sell a huge egg laying girl? Big girls can lay big clutches -- or normal ## clutches with big eggs -- or slug out.

If you are buying her purely for volume... unless you're only talking a couple hundred $$$ then it might be better to just buy a bunch of littler ones. But like I said -- the novelty and anticipation of the first clutch might be worth it to you.
-----
Tosha
JET Pythons

I'm picking her up in a hour her name is gonna be BB for Big Ball or Big B.... . Ya she is defineatly amazing to look at. The prices isn't bad I see 1000gram normal female balls go for more its from a friend who use to own a petstore but went out of business

i would think that a female that big could lay 15 eggs easily. i had two cluthes this year, one of ten eggs from a 3000 grammer, and one of six eggs from a 2200 grammer. the six egg cluth had bigger eggs by far.
joe

How about Big Bertha
-----
1.0 Columbian RTB
1.0 Orange Ghost BP
1.0.3 Mojave BP
4.2 Pastel BP
1.0 100% Het Pied BP
1.1 100% Het Caramel BP
1.0 100% Het Albino BP
0.1 100% Het Orange Ghost BP
0.1 Mudd Slide BP (50% het alb)
0.9.1 Normal BP - (2 - 66% het alb, 1 - 50% het pied)
0.0.6 Eggs in the incubator

A good rule of thumb is that a female in breeding condition will put about 1/3 of her pre-lay weight into the clutch. So, if you actually weighed her at 4,500 grams at breeding season you could expect her clutch to weigh about 1,500 grams.

The size of the eggs is more variable and even changes for the same female from year to year. But big females do tend to lay some big eggs. Even using 120 grams per egg though you might expect a healthy 4,500 gram female to lay 12 or 13 eggs.

Two of my girls out on loan the last two years laid 13 and 14 eggs but I don't have weights on them. My scale tops out relatively low. But these 10 - 12 year old girls are pretty massive so I can only imagine what the girls that lay 18 eggs and might be over 20 years old look like.

most lay 6 to 12..........

big girls lay 10 and 12.......usually......

big girls lay 7 to 9 alot too........alot of times.......

1200 gram females can lay 8 and 3500 can lay 8......

size don't always matter.....

.....moving balls can and will shut them down breeding wise.....for years

cinny and cinny pastel are same so go buy a black pastel instead.......LOL
-----
......

I would not hesitate to buy a 4500g female. Especially if she is a virgin. Hopefully she has some huge clutches for you. Unfortunately size doesn't always mean large clutches but it sure helps. Can 1500g females lay 13 eggs? I doubt it.