retireing??

[Cat_Eyed_Lady]

I am hopeing I put this in the correct place....

I was wondering how and when you decide to retire your breeder snakes?? Is it age? or how many clutches of eggs they have had?

Also, do you give them 'time off'??

thanks

 

[Mrs InsaneOne]

Well, we haven't been breeding long enough to retire a snake for old age, but we are retiring our one snow female due to her prolapse and subsequent egg-binding this year. She'll most likely still ovulate, but we won't pair her with a male again. We do have plans to exercise her more after brumation so she'll have good muscle tone in the event that she ends up laying slugs.

A few of our breeding age males had the year off this year. Mostly because we had no females for them. In the future the health of the snake(s) and the quality of the clutches (size, number of eggs, and fertility ratios) will factor into our decision as to who will be bred each season. We'll also have to take into account the number of hatchlings we can raise at a time so as to not overwhelm ourselves and get stressed out about trying to feed far too many babies.

The other thing to consider is the direction of the projects we have planned. We have several that are in the works and will focus on them more then anything.

Jenn

 

[Cat_Eyed_Lady]

Thanks for the reply I just started last year and I will only breed a very few each year so that I too dont get too deep in babies My females are only between 3.5 and 5 years old so not real old but I was just curious as to what went into the thought process of decideing When to retire breeders. I know health is a big issue but I dont wish to 'breed out' any of the females either... I prefer to have less babies and healthier parents. Thanks again for the reply

 

[Mrs InsaneOne]

Thanks for the reply I just started last year and I will only breed a very few each year so that I too dont get too deep in babies My females are only between 3.5 and 5 years old so not real old but I was just curious as to what went into the thought process of decideing When to retire breeders. I know health is a big issue but I dont wish to 'breed out' any of the females either... I prefer to have less babies and healthier parents. Thanks again for the reply

I know exactly what you mean. That's pretty much the way we figured on doing things once we started breeding. I'd also planned on setting the females up so that they only ever breed two years in a row with a year off the next - and still might - but I've learned that some females will ovulate and lay a clutch whether they are paired with a male or not. (Retained sperm in some cases for a fertilized clutch or an entire clutch of slugs.)

So we'll have to watch all over all of the breeding age females and insure they are in the best of health to deal with the whatever arises. Even laying a clutch of slugs seems to take a lot out of them.

Jenn