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maximum breeding age

marchettid

marchettid

New member
What is the life expectancy of corn snakes, and what is the maximum breeding age for both females and males? I know initially, your supposed to follow the 300 g. 3 year rule. I'm planning to buy a 2000 female soon, but want to know how many more good years of breeding she'll have.

Doug
 
I've successfully bred females that are 10 years old. I know other breeders have bred even older females. And I have a couple of females that I have no clue as to their age. Alot depends of the females over-all condition and how many clutches she has produced in the past. When I retired my first female after her 10th year, I figured it was time to give her a well-deserved retirement. She had always double-clutched for me (even when I didn't want her to) and even triple-clutched one year. She produced over 250 hatchlings in her life-time and I figured that was enough!

As for males, I would think they would be similar to any male...capable 'til the end. An older male may not be as fertile...not as many wigglers, so you might expect more slugs produced. I did notice that when breeding my 1996 butter male. The fertility rate was way down.
 
I've found that a female's prime breeding years are around ages 7-8. That's when mine have produced the largest number of eggs per clutch, with the highest proportion of fertile eggs. After that age, clutches get smaller and the number of slugs per clutch seems to increase. Seems about right to retire females around age 10, although I'm sure there are some out there which are in great shape and will produce comfortably into their teens.

As for males, well, they do seem pretty "juiced up" well into their later years. I have a 14 year old male who last year happily sired a clutch of 24 eggs (all fertile and resulting in healthy, hungry hatchlings) with a six year old female.

Have you ever seen a male Corn grinning before? :sidestep:
 
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