Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Being more of a python and boa guy, I don't have a ton of experience breeding colubrids. We are breeding some corns and kingsnakes this year and immediately after copulation we witnessed the male defecating in a several pairs of snakes.

Has anyone witnessed this with any regularity? Seems like an odd coincidence....

Any comments are appreciated, even if it's toilet humor..lol.

-Jason

I put my cal kings together for the first time yesterday and had the exact same thing happen. Like you I am more of a boa/python guy, so its new to me as well. Any of the pros have any insight on this?

I can't say that I've noticed that as a normal habit. In general, colubrids take a dump more often than boas and balls. I started with colubrids, then boas, then balls, and still have a few colubrids left. They are more work than balls and boas. I've talked with some breeders that have sold off their colubrids because they didn't like the extra cleaning.

I've definitely noticed the extra cleaning. I have slowly been switching over to colubrids recently due to a lack of space for larger boids and it definitely is more work keep everyone clean. I hadn't heard of males defecating after copulation before, but as I mentioned in my previous post my male banana cal king did when I put him with his female this weekend.