Seen it come up from time to time and wondered what others thought about it.
Thinking through the numbers I've seen/read and my own thoughts on the subject and came up with this analogy, what do you all think?
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For my females, I let them get to be at least three years and quite often 4 years old before breeding them. The benefits are larger healthy litters and a larger healthier momma that can turn around and breed again sooner.
I think of it this way, if 3 or 4 years really is optimal for mature females to start reproducing and I seem to remember 2 year old females having been bred, it's like 5-6x the maturity rate of humans.
At 2 years old, a female boa is like a 10-12 year old girl, small, most likely not, but maybe, just maybe mature enough to get pregnant but very likely not mature enough to physically be a good mommy.
At three years old that same female boa is like a 15-18 year old girl. Very likely physically capable of getting pregnant but still might be lacking in maturity.
At four years old, the female boa is like a 20 - 24 year old woman. Note, I'm now calling her a woman because she's now sexually mature and physically capable and ready to get pregnant and have kids.
Same logic applies to males but since they don't carry the babies (ova) they can be mature enough sooner (closer to 8X the human maturity rate) or...
18 month old male boa = 12 year old boy, old enough to get the job done but maybe not done well.
30 month old male boa = 20 year old man, randy as hell and ready to plant his seed anywhere he can.
Not scientific, just my observations and opinions.
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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 (05/26/2009):
36.51 BRB
29.42 BCI
And those are only the breeders 
lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats 
