Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For those of you who say you breed before the female sheds, I was just wondering how much you feed your females before breeding? I thought you wanted to feed them as much as they would take (starting with smaller meals, working your way back up to normal sized), to fatten them up for breeding. Niether my females nor my males really lost any mass while in brumation. I was just wondering how those of you who do not wait for the shed go about breeding.
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------Misty-------
We have enough youth....How about a fountain of smart?

Corn snakes breed when they are ready - not when people put them together prior to shedding. Although there are sometimes exceptions, The Corn Snake Manual states "Post-hibernation shedding, often several weeks and many meals after the warm-up time started, is generally believed to be a reliable signal of the start of active breeding season."

While some females will mate prior to the post-brumation shed, they are merely storing the sperm until they ovulate (which happens around the post-brumation shed). Some females will shed twice before being ready to breed.

If the female doesn't ovulate, she won't have eggs; putting a male in with her won't make a difference as far as getting eggs sooner. In fact, females are less eager to mate when not ovulating, so in a sense the male is wasting his energy.

Tim

Third Eye