Breeding Question

[IndianaCorn]

I know that breeding is very common for different colors, patterns, etc... But is there such a thing as people breeding for size also, for either smaller or larger? Just curious

IndianaCorn
(Brandon)

 

[Susan]

Excellent question!

I've not heard of anyone specifically breeding for size but I think it may be possible. Over the years, I've noticed that my smaller females lay smaller eggs, thus have smaller hatchlings. And these smaller hatchlings tend to take longer to grow to breedable size. And this doesn't seem to be affected by the size of the males.
However, after a few years, some of these smaller snakes will suddenly get a growth spurt and no longer be considered a "small" snake. I do have a 6 yr old female that, although a decent sized snake, is almost dwarfed by her sister and brother from the same clutch. Hatchlings from both sisters seem to be the same size. I've only kept a couple of these hatchlings and they match the size of other hatchlings from those years.
I do have 2 same clutch sisters (2001) from another small female, but they, however, currently show a large difference in size. One is almost the size of her mother already while the other is only slightly larger than most of my 2002 hatchlings. And don't ask me why. Both have been excellent feeders their entire life, one just grew like crazy while the other didn't. And their father is a fairly large snake.

 

[CornCrazy]

I had two clutches last year...one from a 3 foot female (5 years old) and the other from an almost 4 1/2 foot female (age unknown). The smaller female laid fewer eggs, but they were bigger. All of her babies were larger and started feeding well. The babies from the large female were smaller and I had several difficult feeders from that clutch. I'm not so sure that breeding for size is feesible.