Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I have a couple of questions. 1) Am I correct that males should be at least 100 grams and females be at least 200 grams to breed or are those weights too small? 2) How many females can you breed to one male safely?
Thanks in advance!

Those are basic rules of thumb my friend... You will notice that many people have their own idea of what is accepable as far a weight and age go... Personally, I go by overall body condition then weight is the next consideration...

You could have a 300 gram female that is not in good breeding condition and you can have a 200 gram female that is prime for breeding...

With males, I do not see why they would need to be 100 grams to breed... As long as they are sexually mature I see no reason why they can not be bred at smaller sizes... That is if they are feeding normally and their feeding habbits are not too affected by the breeding season...

I would say there is no "safe" amount of females you can put a male on... What you do need to watch for is sperm viability... The more females a male breeds, the less effective his sperm will be at fertalizing eggs... My opinion is that one male per two to three females would be fine... Personally, I pair one male with one female as I am looking to refine my stock, not mass produce it...

In the wild, I have found gravid females that weigh as little as 110 grams (that is with eggs). However, most gravid females that we find here in MN are between 150-200g. We have yet to find a wild western hognose (gravid or not) that is over 210 grams.

* Just a FYI, I wouldn't breed my female hognose below ~200 grams. Males could easily go at ~40-50 grams.

-Chris
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Christopher E. Smith
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