Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey folks.
My breeding season is a bit behind since I moved my whole collection to a different room in the house this year... but I've got a question.

If you're mating a single male to multiple females, and generally planning on working the little guy a lot in one season, how long is a decent time in between matings?
I'm hoping maybe someone out there's got some sperm count data or something, but any advice is welcome.
Thanks!
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-Paul

Just circulate him around. Only seperate when feeding.

I have been successful giving the male a 24 hour break in between introductions to females. I put a male in with a female for one or two nights then separate them for 24 hours and keep the male in his own cage for 24 hours before another introduction. The male may not need that rest, but that's how I've done it in the past.

Good luck.

Dave

DNS Reptiles

>>If you're mating a single male to multiple females, and generally planning on working the little guy a lot in one season, how long is a decent time in between matings?
>>-Paul

Paul,

I have anecdotal sperm counts for you: For the past five or six years I've expressed a sperm sample from virtually every female after breeding and examined it under a microscope. I dont use a grid and literally count sperm in a sample area and extrapolate to a count. But from those years of experience i do characterize them over about a five-point "rating" from so low as to be perhaps inconsequential (though i think these "counts" may sometimes be the results of an unrepresentative sample) to "three stars," counts so high and with sperm swimming so freely with no visible defects that it is highly likely the male has contributed all that can possible be hoped for for fertilization. In other words, maxed out.

Those counts are visually so high i made it a point when my daughters were young to let them take a look through the microscope too. If all preteen/early teen girls saw that impressive display of reproductive might, there might be fewer accidental pregnancies in the world.

But back to snakes and your question: Like the other response, if i had a male I wanted to spread across many females, i'd give him a day between matings.

But unlike the other response, i didn't leave them together for a day or more. I put them together, watched while i worked in the snake room or returned at frequent intervals if i had to leave the room, so I could visually confirm they HAD hooked up, and then obtain and examine the sperm sample once they'd separated--usually 30-90 min after introduction. I'd then separate them.

My concern is that in a 1-2 day period a male could copulate half a dozen times or more with that single female. My goal was always to get 3-4 observably good cops over a 10-14 day period. So why risk wasting six of his sperm deposits in a single female during a single 24-48 hr period, if one would do? Experience showed that someitmes even a single cop could produce a fully fertile clutch.

At the high end, i'd sometimes breed a male x perhaps 8 females. If i averaged 3 times ea, that's 24 cops--the same as a male might use up in four different 24-hr periods with the same female. An alternative of course would be to ONLY allow that one, one to two day breeding, assuming there'd be numerous cops during that time. I personally prefer to stagger them, figuring the max effect of a cop might be greater at one or the other dates if spread over 10-14 days. But there are lots of right ways of doing things, lots of different ways that work for different people. I hope these thoughts help.

terry
albino tricolors

This was exactly the sort of information I was looking for.
Thanks for coming through.
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-Paul