1250g--too small to breed?

Its fine. If they have follicles, they are ready. I've gotten 6 eggs from 900 gram girls all the way up to 15 eggs from 4500 gram girls.

I'd echo loudly what SPJ just said, and add that a female's breedability has way more to do with age/maturity and health. Not just weight. I have a 3200g female that isn't ready. She's 6' long, and she should be at least in the 3800g area before she's fat enough. (She's been off and on feed for a year...ugh)

I've had 5 eggs from a 900g female. She was 3 or 4 years old at the time, and she wasn't getting any bigger. After breeding, she finally put on weight like no other. She was quickly up to 1650 grams and breeds each year.

As far as breeding in the spring, and cooling, it has been proven over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over..... that it's not necessary to cool them in captivity. Also that in captivity, they breed when they're ready, not when you cool them. They grow follicles when they grow follicles. They lay when they lay.

I breed them year round. Different females go at different times. Many of them lay within days of it being exactly 1 year from their last clutch.

Keep feeding your 1250g female. If she has follicles and looks healthy, pair her up. If she doesn't have follicles, just keep feeding her until she does. She may not have them until she's 2000+ grams.

One more thing... Follicle development might be stimulated sometimes by introducing a male into her cage. Not sure if that has actually been (or could actually be) scientifically proven.

Originally Posted by ClarkT

One more thing... Follicle development might be stimulated sometimes by introducing a male into her cage. Not sure if that has actually been (or could actually be) scientifically proven.

I was actually discussing this a couple days ago with someone. I firmly believe that being paired with a male promotes follicle growth. I think in the wild, if there no are no males around, why would a female waste the energy producing and growing large follicles? On the other hand, coming into contact with males would have the opposite effect and put them into "fertilization mode".

Just my theory.

It hasn't been my experience that it promotes or starts it, and that's with using an ultrasound. I do understand the theory/idea, and I agree that it makes sense that it would be the case. But in actuality (based on what I've seen) it has little to zero effect. The same has been true for "cooling" the females.

I dont have the experience to argue that as I opted against using an ultrasound. I know someone who uses an ultrasound and doesn't pair until the females have decent sized follicles and I've also noticed that he seems to have a lower percentage of females go than I would expect. It could be the conditions as well, there are a lot of factors that could play a part.