Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a female spider 1350 grams has not eaten i want to say 2-3 months i have always fed her rats i would like to breed her again this year but since shes not eating im not sure? shes not a long female shes a shorty would it be safe to breed her at 1350? also again always fed her rats should i try mice or should i just wait it out? thanks for any suggestions!

I have a female het albino that is not going to be ready for me to breed this year, as she is only 1300g. I do not breed below 1500 MINIMUM! When she was a baby, she went from live mice to frozen mice to live rats to frozen rats to asf back to live rats, and now she wont take ANYTHING but live mice...lol...so PISSED at her as all of my other females take frozen mediums. I have been feeding her a mouse every other to every three days and slowly she is growing, but wont be ready this year. If you hold off on breeding her this year, you will have a bigger clutch of eggs next year, AND will have better potential to put the weight back of for the following year as well. If you breed her this year, you will not be able to breed her next year as she will "most likely" be too small.

I, like the previous poster do not breed girls when they are small, although I like to wait to 2000 grams because they seem to bounce back faster. I have had girls under 2000 that I used to breed, but they would go every other year. Now the girls that I wait til 2000 to breed, will generally go every year, unless I give them a break.

Don't breed her this year, unless she turns back on....you will be happier in the end. She probably will breed this year, and you get 4 eggs, then none again for 2 years, or you can wait a year, and maybe get 6-8, then breed her the next year.

Patience grasshopper.....the snakes are not going anywhere.

Jason
-----
jason.trott78@yahoo.com

Well thanks to both posters and great advice! I will
Wait till next season unless she packs on the weight
Which doesn't look likely! Thanks again!

Breeding snakes is truly a monumental test of ones patience, but patience always pays off in the end, from eggs, to babies, to breeding adults. I will be the first to admit that I have seriously stressed out some beautiful snakes in my day, it is so easy to become obsessed about wondering what is going on inside the eggs, candling them every day, or twice a day, oh, I think I see some pattern, poke poke poke, Hey, what can it hurt to slit them open a few days early, just a little slit, oooh, I see some color, hmmm, maybe just a little bigger slit, perhaps a little poke to see a little more, I wonder what sex the newborn babies are, why have they not eaten, it has been 3 days since they shed, oh, I want to take yet more pictures of the babies, one more pop to be sure its a boy, or not a boy, hey, everybody, check out this new snake.

I can say for sure I was the worst parent ever, out of love. But the excitement eventually returned to a normal level, as all things do eventually, I was then faced with some baby snakes that lacked the confidence and feeling of security to attack their first meal, feeding often times would get off to a slow start and this was of course a big feeling of stress to carry. Now, I handle eggs and babies the very minimum my patience will allow me, eggs are only checked a couple times, fresh babies are handled gently, given a warm bath from a tub of water I put into the incubator a couple days before hatching, gently placed back into the incubator in a clean tub with warm moist paper towel for a few days, then when I move them into the baby rack they each get their own little tiny hide box, it is here that they have their first shed and seem to really take ownership of their little house, I can see the confidence they have as they stick their little snout out the front door and check out the world, when I put their first meal into the box, they are brave little snakes, ready to pounce on this scary first meal.

to be continued...

My previous post did stray a bit from the topic of breeding your below 1500 gram female, but the main point is patience really does pay off, it is how to best win the war and not worry about the little battles. Getting a little lucky and producing eggs from a smaller female will perhaps get some eggs this year, but waiting a year and breeding a nice fat female next year and possibly the following year will usually yield a greater number of babies in the end. It is certainly not an exact science and I could see some valid reasons to breed a female as soon as possible, perhaps one has a special gene to prove out and the race is on to get it to market, then it might be deemed better to have a few eggs today than a few more next year.

Good Luck with all your future projects,

Mark

Wow by the length of your posts I see you have
A lot of patience!!(lol) yes i do understand and
Will def wait till next season on her! Thank you very
Much!!

this is not always true, i have had several females that bred and produced small (4 egg) clutches at ~1200g they all put the weight and then some back on within a couple months, on a normal feeding schedule. it all depends on the female

i promise out in the bush there is no one weighing the snakes telling them if they are big enough to breed or not
-----
www.bamreptiles.webs.com
www.facebook.com/bamreptiles

I agree. I totally believe it depends on age, really. If she's 18 months old and 1300 grams, sure, wait another year. But, I had a girl last year, that was 6 or 7 years old, but a bit of a spotty feeder. Was 1400 grams BEFORE she laid 8, good eggs. About 900 grams after she laid. Soon as I took the eggs out, she went right back on her "regular" feeding schedule, and gained the weight back in no time. All the eggs went full term, and all the babies were healthy as can be. Same girl went again this year, albeit a bit later, and laid 7 eggs.

I've also had girls that were only 18-24 months old, and well over the 2000 gram mark, that didn't go at all. No biggie, by next year, they'll be 3 years old and hopefully 2500-3000 grams. I promise, they know better than we do whether or not they're ready to lay eggs.

At the same time, if it's your personal preference to wait until they're 1500 or 2000 grams, and that's what's working for you, who am I to suggest you change something!