Disadvantages to large females and large clutch sizes??

[RandyRemington]

I'd like to hear about the resolution to the egg binding also. I'm getting the idea it's pretty rare in ball pythons (at least compared to corn snakes). I've heard of one that eventually passed it on her own and another where it was messaged out but that's it.

My two biggest/fattest females didn't produce last year. I think I over fed them in a rush to get them big. They aren’t that old of animals (about 7 years) but where pushing 4,000 grams and didn’t really have the length yet to justify that weight. Perhaps decreased fertility could be a problem with very fat girls but hopefully not the big ones that aren't over fat.

I remember with the larger breeds of cattle (Semital?) they used to complain that they took longer to reach maturity and longer to recover from having a calf and re-bred.

Maybe when comparing a genetic giant line of ball pythons to a moderate sized one you can grow the daughters up quicker and breed them more reliably with the moderate sized ones. I know my best producer (5 years in a row) is a moderate sized girl. She is only just 2000 grams now and her biggest clutch so far was 7. However she has never laid an egg that didn't hatch so she is my old reliable and a good choice for an important project.