Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just put my male tiger het albino in with my het albino female. The female is 14 foot plus and the male is around 12foot.
Everytime the male touches her she twitches and kicks him off....is that normale retic breeding behavior or is she not ready? Or is she just playing hard to get?

Thanks reading my post!!

Steve Ingram

Did she wag her tail or musk at all? If so, she is probably not quite ready. Is she eating still?

Patrick Powers
Manager of Prehistoric Pets

Thanks for your response. She is still eating.
The male has stopped eating. What can I do to help set the mood and to get her ready?
Should I leave them together or seperate them?

Thanks again!

Steve

I'm on the east coast where mine breed late October through December. You may be past your "window of opportunity" and have to wait until later this year. For the most part snakes are seasonal breeders. I've had female boas give birth the same week in multiple years, burms hatch the same week every year, etc. By keeping good breeding records you get to know the best time to pair up your snakes every year.

I live on the east coast also and I have bred retics several times and fertile copulation took place in October, but started in September and ended by December 1st. My retics have not been bred this year, but still went thru their non-feeding cycle and have resumed eating since December. I couldn't breed them even if I wanted to till next year, they breed the exact same time every year that I have bred them. I guess they could be reprogrammed to breed at a different time of year, but from what I understand such reconditioning could take several years. For example I have read that retics breed 6 months earlier in Australia then on the east coast (USA) coinciding with Australian winter, while it's summer in the northern hemisphere.
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Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research
R&R Herpetological

If she is still eating, then seperate them and continue feeding her. Maybe once a week, for one or two days, put the male back in with her to see if maybe she reacts any differntly. If for some reason she stops eating and it's not a shed thing, put the male in and see if they breed. On the west coast (Southern California), our temps are so screwy. One week we have a high of 50 and a low of 25. And then yesterday we had a high of 81 and a low in the high 50s. This could explain why we have breeding almost year round. Once a female lays, she lays within a few days the next year. But we have females lay from January to August or September. There is still hope, but you may have missed her. Good luck with her!

Patrick Powers
Manager of Prehistoric Pets

I didn't want to breed her this year is what I should have stated. Every time I have tried I was lucky enough to be successful and it was always in the same time period. I know snakes can react to changes occurring outside, but no matter what the weather my temps stay the same inside (unless power failure). They do know when its raining regardless of being inside however. I believe once I have her on a temp cycle I would have to change it to make her breed at another time of year kinda thing, but I didn't change anything and even though I didn't want to breed them this year they went off feed as if I had and resumed feeding the same month when I did breed them. So therefore I believe their fertility period has passed. Plus my 17 foot tiger male gets high strong during the breeding season and has calmed back down again. He literally bangs his body against enclosure all night from Sept thru Nov and calms his butt down in beginning of January. I do not believe in breeding my snakes yearly, I give them a year off. I'm a hobbyist not a professional breeder, when all my pythons are mature I will then take things further in a small business manner with a friend. I got my first retic in the 80's when not many people where keeping them due to their reputations, which is what attracted me to them in the first place, I was an odd lad lol. My first successful breeding was in 1995 with two imported retic's one 14 years old and one 25 years old, both now deceased. but our bloodline lives on, the original female laid 96 eggs, very small and so where the babies but they grew into giants.
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Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research
R&R Herpetological

from a 2001 breeding, this from my and Charles Juiliano bloodline, which we flooded the market in hamburg Penn in the mid to late 90's , right before they just caught on, they where mostly tame and had nothing to do with the tiger bloodline. I still have seven from this line to breed to my Carl Herman male tiger and believe it or not my Barker female tiger. I also have 1 albino and hets from Bob and one other private breeder. I am not interested in being the "big" breeder and I will NOT be selling my retic's to work on other projects kind of thing LOL. I just love them and reticulatus was the first Python I ever owned, I ordered one from Bronx Reptiles when I worked in a pet store in the 80's. I was 11-12 years old. I had him 14 years and he was killed by the female in 1995 but produced 68 offspring out of 96 eggs laid by Charles female which just passed, she was over 30, wish he would have documented, that has to be a record in longevity.

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Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research
R&R Herpetological

mine did that for awhile... i kept introducing them (even though she was musking) and they eventually copulated.
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Reticulatus.Net

Well, she stopped flicking him off. They are both together, but show no signs of interest in each other. I live in illinois. If this year does not pan out for breeding, about what time should I attempt breeding next season?

Thanks for all the comments. Patrick, This pair if snakes came from you guys..! Is it normal for both animals to be a bit feisty towards human contact during this time of year?

Anyway, Thanks again for all of your replies

-Steve Ingram

some of my females go in the fall, and some in the spring.

even if they are still eating i would try and keep putting them together... its not going to hurt them.

last fall my females were still eating and were musking even as i was introducing males... i was persistant and eventually they bred. one day the females just stopped eating and it was on.

you may have missed the female (like pat said)... keep trying and maybe she will go in the spring... i think a good rule of thumb is to introduce the male(s) after each shed for a few days at a time, then take them out and reintroduce.
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Reticulatus.Net

clarification: introduce males each time after the female sheds.

also one thing i have noticed with my males is that they are more interested in breeding when they smell other males around... this gets them going bigtime. i keep all my males in the same room together and that seems to make them go nuts.

... these are just some of my observations though.
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Reticulatus.Net