Apparently stunted and unable to breed?

[jhammond]

Hello, im looking to by a new snake for a pair, and this person selling this snake said this about it. do you think it would be effected that much that it was stunted and unable to breed?
"But if your interested in her for breeding I couldn't guarantee her suitability. We are her third owners. Her first owner completely neglected her, didn't feed her properly and never handled her, she became very aggressive and cage defensive and we also believe she is stunted from this as she's about three years old but small for her age, hence why I'm not sure she'll be capable of breeding. Her second owner looked after her very well but was too scared of her so didn't handle her either. We've had her for almost a year and my son has spent a lot of time handling her (and been bitten more times than we can count), but his time has paid off and she's gone from being very on edge and biting constantly to being quite comfortable while being held, but is still cage defensive. She is a beautiful snake, and feeds very well."
SHES 3 YEARS OLD AND 1200 LONG ALBINO DARWIN CARPET

[Aaron_S]

It's possible. You'd have to probably put more weight on but ultimately it's upto you.

[Scubadiver59]

BTW...welcome to sSNAKESs!!

[jjhill001]

1200 what long? Inches? Thats a big snake lol. Just kidding.

I heard there is no such thing as a stunted snake. They grow as much as you feed them. I don't know if your snake is at optimal body weight or not. I've always been more of a "does it look alright kinda guy." As opposed to the go by weight type but I think my method is best for the thinner bodied colubrids I work with than maybe the BP people who weight food items and such. If you up feeding frequency for a few months or so you might be able to get some adequate size on her. Who knows lol.

I will say this, I think that in the wild snakes breed via combination of age and size with age being more important than size. But given we can make a choice on size and risk its up to you if you think shes too small for breeding. Personally I wouldnt breed a snake I thought was small.

[Herpin' Man]

Originally Posted by jjhill001

I heard there is no such thing as a stunted snake. They grow as much as you feed them.

I would agree that snakes do not become permanently "stunted" from underfeeding.
I have taken small underfed snakes and pumped them with food and seen normal growth resume. At three years of age, your snake is definitely not old.
However, there are studies which indicate that adult reproductive potential in pythons is influenced greatly by the amount of food they got when they were young. In other words, even if you do quickly get the snake up to proper size, it may not be as prolific as it otherwise would have been.