the rule of 3

[Razorphade]

Just reading through some books here on breeding ect.. and i come across a section on kings. And it states that with average feeding you can get female kings to breeding condition in just under two years. Now what i dont understand is why it's different for corns? they are the same build snake, they both roughly attain a similar size and definition and both have very similar living requirements.

Why would one need 3 years and another 2?


thanks in advanced

[Ssthisto]

The "Rule of 3" is one of Terry Pratchett's "Lies to children".

It's not a hard and fast LAW, it's a general guideline for beginners who do not know how to assess the condition of their animal by feel, weight and so forth.

I would say that the "rule of 3" also applies to Kings for people who are not looking at muscle tone, overall body condition, length, weight and capability to bear eggs. For someone who IS looking at those things, it may well be possible to get a king OR a corn into condition before she's three years old (in fact, I have this year bred a corn who made two of the three but not the third - she was the right length, right weight and more critically well toned and able to cope with having eggs despite not having seen her third birthday yet).

There are some animals I wouldn't breed even if they MET the "rule of 3" because they are overweight or undermuscled and thus are not likely to be able to cope with what it takes to breed and lay eggs successfully no matter how big, fat or old they are.

[bluerain]

Thought rule of 3 was the Wiccan rule for whatever you do to others comes back to you multiplyed by three.

[Ssthisto]

Nah, that's "what you do to others comes back sevenfold"

Please note that when I say "rule of three is Terry Pratchett's lies-to-children" I do not specifically mean that Mr. Pratchett knows anything about corn snakes nor specifically that he described the rule of three. What I mean is that it's a small lie that touches on the truth in such a way that a novice can understand the idea of the truth even if the facts they've been given are in fact a lie.

The point is simply that a three-year-old, 300+ gram snake that's three feet long is PROBABLY going to be able to breed successfully, where a smaller, younger snake might not unless the owner is very aware of what body condition needs to be in order to successfully breed.

[cornmorphs]

there are many threads on this rule on this forum. have a good look, some are very interesting and the rsults vary greatly.

[bluerain]

OOOHHH!!! Ok guys...thanks for putting me right on that!