Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my colony is successfully breeding and I have 5 groups of 3.1 wherein I cycle the mom out for birthing and then after birth put 2 moms and their litters together.

Ive noticed however the moms that are nursing 12 babies or 2 moms to 24 have pups growing smaller in size than the moms that end up with 9 to 10 pups each. There is actually quite a size difference. For example I just took some 5 week old weanlings who came from a group of 24 in a growout tank that had 3 week olds almost as large.
The following cycle I gave the 2 moms who had the smaller babies a less number each-(9) and their babies were larger the next time around.

Has any one else had smaller size babies when each mom is nursing 12?

My monitors and bps each eat roughly 5 week old weanlings, but not if they are going to be smaller than what they had been?
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1.1.0 YBS
1.3.0 RES
1.0.0 red belly cooter
1.0.0 Fire belly toad
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor
0.0.1 Blackthroat monitor
0.1.0 Leopard Gecko
0.1.0 Mountain Horned dragon
2.1.0 Ball pythons
cats, dog, ferrets, rabbit, rats.

Go to your local Hospital and visit the maternity ward...notice something. The babies are different sizes, even more so twins are smaller than singles.

Completely normal, some females are just smaller internally, and larger litters yeild smaller young. Just wait till you have a litter of five.

Feed snakes animals based on weight not age.
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Jeremy Payne
JB Reptile
Specializing in Boa Morph's

1.0 Snow "Kahl"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Kahl"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
0.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow
1.0 Ghost
0.1 Possible Super Hypo
0.1 DH Ghost
1.1 "Kahl" Albino
1.0 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Suriname/Columbian cross
0.1 Anerthrystic

Yeah, I have many different sized snakes and find it's best to take a few little ones from each litter to feed the smaller snakes, and leave 6 or 7 babies for each mom to feed.
The babies do so much better and are much healthier (And friendlier.) and the moms are under less stress and need less vacation time. I take the ones that don't have milk in their bellies and feed them off right away to my smaller snakes. Also, any that are skinny, have infected navels, or are turning dark in their bellies. You have any reptiles that need rat pinks rather than rat pups?

Totally normal, the moms can only produce so much milk. Divided between more babies and each baby gets less. LOL, you should see how fast (fat) they grow with only a few pups to a healthy mom.

Like said, feed by size, not age.

It's all a trade off...

96 babies and 8 moms @ 5 weeks old (2 moms and 24 babies per cage) = 4 cages x 5 weeks = 20 "cage weeks"

96 babies and 10 moms @ 4 weeks old (2 moms and 16 babies per cage) = 5 cages x 4 weeks = 20 "cage weeks"
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

thanks, originally I was leaving less per mom and will likely go back to doing so depending on the mom.
My oldest mom, now retired always had 7-9, but the largest babies Id ever seen.

I have nothing that eats pinks (but a monitor who enjoys them as a snack), my youngest BP eats eyes open size, or the smaller weaned ones. Most of the weanlings go to monitors.

Why do some of the babies bellys turn black, I had that happen for the first time recently
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1.1.0 YBS
1.3.0 RES
1.0.0 red belly cooter
1.0.0 Fire belly toad
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor
0.0.1 Blackthroat monitor
0.1.0 Leopard Gecko
0.1.0 Mountain Horned dragon
2.1.0 Ball pythons
cats, dog, ferrets, rabbit, rats.