Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, forgive me if someone has asked this before...but I was wondering if I bred, say, an 1800 gram female, and she lays that first year...would that hinder her in anyway? Like if she ever reached the 5000 gram range, are her clutch sizes going to be smaller because she has been bred before? I am new to BPs...and I am starting to get a nice group of adult females I want to breed to my pastel male next year. Would it be better to just wait until they are bigger? Or is it ok to breed them at the 1500-1800 gram range? Thanks in advance!!

Melody

So far for us, every female laid 1 egg per 300 grams of weight. The larger the girl the more eggs.

ie.... 1800 grams, 6 eggs 2400 grams 8 eggs.

We introduce males to our girls when they hit 1500-1600 grams.
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www.NEWReptiles.com

While breeding will take an obvious toll on how much weight and size a female can gain in a given year, I would not consider it detrimental in my own experience. Some examples that come to mind from our collection. One female, just under 1200 grams pre breeding, laid 6 good eggs the first year. The next year, she was a couple hundred grams heavier and had 3 good/1 slug. This year, another couple hundred grams heavier (1600 pre breeding) she gave 8 good eggs. Another 1400 gram female gave 6 good eggs. Yet another 1200 gram female laid 4 this year.