Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I picked up a 32 inch female cali king to compliment my 4 ft striped cali male. Come next breeding season if she is at 3 ft. I was going to try breeding the two since I have never breed kings. I have concerns about the size difference and don't want the male to see her as a meal. I am assuming that brumating will get the male to wanting to breed as much as he can instead of wanting to feed. Any advice appreciated. Thanks.
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2.4 ball pythons
1.1 sand boas
1.2 corn snakes
1.0 southern plains rat
1.1 black rat snakes
1.0 striped Cali king
1.0 western hog
1.0 wc eastern garter

Watch them like a hawk.
In my younger years - I bred a large male with a smaller female.
First mating went fine, she layed eggs, I attempted a double clutch. Second mating attempt - he became fat.

Offer the male food so that if he is hungry, he can fill up on rodents. Males often don't eat much when they want to get jiggy - but they do sometimes eat.

My 4' male has been eating quite well, yet eagerly mated with my 4' female just last Tuesday - and yesterday, again eagerly ate, and today - he's again out looking for the female (I assume that's what he's doing - he never has spent so much time just crawling around his cage - not until I put her shed skin in).

Anyway - offer him food a day or two before mating, and watch them closely. If they copulate, she's probably safe - but if the male doesn't attempt to mate, he may attempt to feed.

Local natural history museum has 3 kings in the same enclosure, and their big one of the three could eat the smallest of the three easily - yet so far, it hasn't. In fact, the three almost always are coiled up together. I think the key is making sure they are very well fed on rodents.
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3.0 WC; 0.2 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 WC; 10 eggs (7/11) Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

Great thanks. I like the idea about placing her shed skin in the cage before introduction.
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2.4 ball pythons
1.1 sand boas
1.2 corn snakes
1.0 southern plains rat
1.1 black rat snakes
1.1 Cali kings
1.0 western hog
1.0 wc eastern garter

Yeah - the shed skin worked well for me.
I put her in when I first got her, he showed no interest - he did lick her quite a bit, but didn't attempt to mate. Maybe she didn't smell right. She shed a couple days later.

Anyway, I put her shed skin in just to see what would happen, and he just rubbed all over it and went stir crazy - just kept crawling everywhere. Next day I put her in, and in less than 10 minutes - he was positioning his body alongside hers, and they started copulating. It's the first mating of kingsnakes I've done in about 15 years.

I didn't properly brumate him, but he may have brumated on his own - the ambient temperature did get cool (I put on sweaters rather than pay a high gas bill) and he didn't feed last winter, so he may have been cool ebough to brumate in his tank. His hide is an artificial hollow tree, sometimes he coils up low right above the heat source - sometimes he coild up in it high withing the branches, which may have been cool enough, I don't know.
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3.0 WC; 0.2 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 WC; 10 eggs (7/11) Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata