Kingsnake.com - Herpforum - Well, this explains a lot!

Posted by: pyromaniac at Wed Apr 11 14:26:40 2012 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by pyromaniac ]

I had been suspecting that Zuni was actually a male as he had never been comfortable in the trio cage with Zane and Zafina, not nesting with the other two and in general hiding. So I put him in his own cage, then when breeding season started tried putting him in with my male Zane. Zane was not the gentle suitor he was with the females, instead attacking him, biting and trying to drive him off (pretty hard to do in a tub). Poor Zuni! He was like, WTF! Zane was not a happy camper, either.

Hence an experiment:

Zuni and Dotz this morning. Obviously Zuni is a male! He tried all morning to get Dotz to mate but she has not been receptive so far. She is a proven female.

Zuni and Zunchara later this morning. Although Zunchara had mated with Zane a week ago I put her in with Zuni and they locked up right away, a good solid lock. Afterwards he was very relieved, content to go under his hide and rest. If he smoked he would have had a cigarette! LOL!

I am not disappointed that Zuni is a male. The breeder offered to exchange him for another female, but I like this little snake, and besides it is nice to have another adult male. I do feel a bit embarrassed that it took me this long to figure this gender thing out, but now I can tease my friend the breeder who had been doing snake breeding for decades!
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.