When is a male mature?

[Valley Dragons]

Okay, can anyone give me a ballpark estimate of how old and how many grams a male usually is when he become sexually mature? I have an almost yearling male that I would like to breed, but I have no idea how to tell if he is making sperm plugs, and I don't have a local vet that is experienced with snakes...sooo...an educated guess is my best bet unless someone else can offer some better advice.

Jamie

[Clay Davenport]

You will hear of males producing plugs at 500 grams, and even of some successfully breeding at that size. However, 7-800 grams is more realistic.
I personally have had males producing plugs at 500 grams, but lacked any interest at all in breeding.

Of course it doesn't hurt to try with a smaller male, just don't get your hopes up too high.

[jasballs]

My youngest male was 5 months old 300g. I got 2 clutches from him.

[6y0ballpython]

I have an almost 7 year old male that was starved until I got him 8 months ago. He was 500g when I got him, I tripled his diet and to this day he hasn't gained anything. He weighed 504g on xmas day. He's producing plugs because I've seen them, and then he went off feed two months ago. He hasn't lost any weight yet, but 7 years old and 500g and won't gain....????? I'm gonna give him one more year to fatten up an only about 4 more months or a 100g weight loss before I start to worry. They will mate when they are ready, but I think I stopped my male from eating by thinking I could mate them when he is not very big. I probably could have succeeded, but I pulled them away too soon. Now neither wants to eat. It's a waiting game...........

[LadyOhh]

As it is true that younger males do breed, DO NOT assume that they will.

Many projects have been overhyped by people, just to have them fail because the male was assumed to breed at 400 grams.

It is all a waiting game. Patience...