Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know i posted this already, but i think it was overlooked because it never recieved any replies. Anyway, I got this girl about two years ago. she is in a 40 breeder with a male about the same age. She was a very slow eater for a while until Ted from House of Scales put his hands on her and ever since then she has eaten like a champ. I dont have a scale, but I dont think she is at 1500 grams yet, but hard to tell. She has however been twisted up with the male a good bit in the past month or so. Is it going to hurt her if I let them do their thing? Will she reject him if she knows she is too small? She does have good body weight so I think that she has sufficient fat reserves for eggs, but I dont want to force anything on her. Should I just let them be and see what comes of it? Let me know what yall think. Also could some of you post pics of some of your bps that are at 1500 grams or close? That would be great. Thanks in advance.

she looks bigger than yours....could just be the pictures though i guess.

Deal

I thought that they wouldn't try to breed if they weren't of size, but they were tied up again last night.

Its very hard to judge by a pic but I would guess she is right around 1200 grams. she should be a little bigger but I have seen snakes of her size lay good clutches. Small but still good. Is she still eating for you? If so keep feeding her on a heavy feeding schedule. You could still pack on another couple 100 grams on her. Alot of times if a female isnt big enough she will still breed but she just wont produce. It shouldnt hurt anything letting them breed. Good luck

She is still eating, once a week she gets a rat in between a small and a medium. My male has stopped eating for the past couple of weeks but, if I understand correctly, this is normal for this time of year. I have also heard that it is good to offer smaller food to a female during breeding season but more often, would it be a good idea to offer a smaller small rat every five days or is what i am doing good?

First of all if you are going to breed her you need to find out how big she is and how old she is. If she is small and under or around 2 years old there is a chance that she could become egg bound or have other complications if she becomes gravid. If she is not at least 1300 grams then I would separate the two. Going by looks or guessing isn't the responsible thing to do - yes in the wild there are balls that lay as light as 1000 grams - but they are much older than you average 1000 gram captive snake. And yes I had a 500 gram pair hook up so they do apparently do some recreational procreation. If she is of appropriate age and size to breed then you can let them continue breeding - feed her once a week - generally a smaller item until she starts to refuse food. If shes not big enough separate them.
-----
Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer