Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Lets hear all the good and bad stories of breeding and underwieght females, say around 1000 gram yearlings. Anyone ever attemped this? I've seen a few doing it on this forum. Tell us your experience!!

I am interested to hear this also... often you hear what appears to be fact when infact there is nothing to back it up. I imagine if she ovulates she is ready to breed regardless of weight. If she is not healthy enough wont she reabsorb the folicales? I would be interested to know if anyone has ever had a PROBLEM with a 1000g female geing gravid. I would think the obvious down sides are that the eggs MAY be smaller, clutch size will be smaller, and post female weight will be low, but all of these are not really too big of deal so long as you take good care of all of it.

Ben

By the way, just because a female ovulates, that should never be taken as an indication that she is ready to breed.

Tosha listed good reasons why not to do this in Ball Pythons. Another is that should you manage to get viable offspring from breeding an underweight female, it can take that female many years to recover from the stress it puts on her body - and she will likely never reach her full growth or breeding potential.

Similarly, in mammals: females that are bred too early are often stunted in growth, and there are many other known negative health effects.

Within the examples in mammals: humans. Just because girls can ovulate as early as 9 years old doesn't mean that they are ready to have children. Girls that young HAVE had children, but for many reasons, that is considered a bad idea.

In all things, consider the ETHICS of what you are proposing to do with your animals!

~Rebecca
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1.1 Ball Pythons (1.0 '05 Ghost, 0.1 '03 Normal)
0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40 lb darling lap dogs)

"consider the ETHICS"

Juat a quick point that when it comes to Snakes (in fact most Animals), Ethics kinda go out the window!?!?!?!

Every season, Brothers are bred to Sisters, Fathers to Daughters, Sons to Mothers etc. etc. (surely you`ll end up doing it with that het. Ghost!)

Personally way more ethically wrong that breeding an underage/weight female.

Just something to consider.

Generally if a female does not have the fat reserves for follicular development - then she wont go.

People who have shared their stories with breeding have underweight (less than 1300 grams) females have run into the following problems:

They don't go
They become egg bound
They slug out
The babies don't make it
They don't breed the following year sometimes 2
They continue to have small clutches

Have there been any successful breedings - I've heard some with females around 1200 grams - yeah small clutches but still successful. Wild balls will successfully reproduce at 1000ish grams but the average 1000 gram female in the wild is several years old not a yearling. When I look at my 1200 gram girls I just can't picture them with a clutch of eggs in them.

Personally I wouldn't do it so I can only tell you what I've seen and heard - hope that answers your questions a bit.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

10.35.0 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)
0.0.1 Lizard rescued from feline
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

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-Ohh, what a Lady-

Balls for Life, Baby!

www.heathersherps.com