Reptile & Amphibian Forums

to buy or not to buy that is the question... its pretty cheap and its just that they havent been feeding it that much not that it has something wrong with it physically. should i take the chance and buy it or wait a while and buy a different one? do you think i could bring it back up to weight or would the low weight affect its reproductive ability?
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1.0.0 chinese water dragon (Maximus)
0.0.1 emperor scorpion (Fred)
0.0.1 ball python (Brutus)

SORRY ITS 240 GRAMS NOT 340
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1.0.0 chinese water dragon (Maximus)
0.0.1 emperor scorpion (Fred)
0.0.1 ball python (Brutus)

I wouldn't worry about it if it's feeding regularly. You should be able to bring the weight up by feeding more often or larger prey, and I wouldn't worry about it affecting reproduction. I know early on I use to take a more conservative approach to feeding ball pythons and it would take around 4 years to get females to breeding size. These same females are now over 2500 grams and one is around 3200 grams. All of them have also produced perfect clutches no slugs.

George Knaack
GLK HERP

would you have to worry about overfeeding? and what is the right breeding weight for balls? sorry im kinda new to this
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1.0.0 chinese water dragon (Maximus)
0.0.1 emperor scorpion (Fred)
0.0.1 ball python (Brutus)

I wouldn't worry too much about over feeding, just feed properly sized meals when he/she will take it. I try to feed future breeders every 5 to 7 day but some will take every 3 days. As for breeding size, I have read posts on males breeding as small as 500 grams, I have a pastel breeding at 650g. For females it is normally recommended to wait until they are 1500 grams.

George

my picky one who I think might be right at 500 grams has sperm plugs, but it was a battle to get to the 500 grams. Now if he will breed or not is another question all together.

If he is producing sperm plugs he will probably breed with the right female, but if he is finicky I would most definitely wait. He may go back off feed once breeding starts and at least in my opinion at that weight it would be too big of a risk. If he was feeding without problem then I would say go for it, there would be a better chance of him feeding throughout the breeding season, or at least starting back up once it is over without a lot of problems.

George

well breeding season starts late here in CA so I have more time to get him up in weight and this weekend he ate 2 small rats same feeding!! So I might just make it this year with him(he is albino by the way).

Very nice... It is still early so if he is producing sperm plugs and eating regularly you shouldn't have a problem breeding him later this year or early next. Best of luck with him.

George

Opinions differ on what overfeeding is and how bad it is or isn't for the snake. If it starts looking like a pinhead (it's body outgrows it's head) it might be time to slow down a bit.

By the way, is this a female or a male that you are looking to buy? The general consensus nowadays seems to be that a female should be at least 1,500 grams before breeding. There have been reports of rather short and stocky females breeding much lighter and some rather long girls may need to be 2,000 grams before they have enough fat to produce eggs. Males have been known to breed under 400 grams (presumably rarely) but it seems like people have better luck with 500 grams and up with perhaps 800 grams and up being most likely to be successful.

I picked up a 01/04 male back in May and I think he was only about 170 grams when I got him. Presumably he was on a maintenance diet at the breeders for the first 4 months of his life. He apparently is hungry now as he even eats in shed and is 450 grams now without me trying vary hard (weekly feedings of not particularly big meals). He is a possible double het VPI snow and I'm planning on trying him on a couple possible het albino girls here in a few months.

did they tell you what and how often they were feeding it?

I have a 9/03 that would barely/randomly eat mice. before he started eating rats he was 400 grams and he was about a year old. Yours concerns me as it is older than mine is and yet is even smaller. One that is that old and that low of weight must be barely eating anything. I would still do more checking on it, you don't want to be sorry.