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I currently have my black rats together and they haven't locked up... (not that I have seen) The female shed 2 days ago and I placed the male in there with her. There is a size difference but it doesn't seem like enough to keep him away. Should I just keep him in for 2 days, take him out for a few and feed them, and then place them back together until she sheds again? What can I do to encourage them?


And just to keep things on topic...



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.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
.1 MO Locale Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

"You saved my life! I'm gonna get you so many lizards!"

>>I currently have my black rats together and they haven't locked up... (not that I have seen) The female shed 2 days ago and I placed the male in there with her. There is a size difference but it doesn't seem like enough to keep him away. Should I just keep him in for 2 days, take him out for a few and feed them, and then place them back together until she sheds again? What can I do to encourage them?
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>>And just to keep things on topic...
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where do you have them?
If you have them in a separate container try misting it.
Misting seems to help.
People do it differently but I personally leave them in for a couple of days, then separate them for a few days and repeat until I am sure they hook up.
I place them in a sterilite box with one paper towel as substrate. That's it.
This makes it easy to see any signs of hook up, if it happens.
You may never see them hook up or actually see any signs that they hooked up and a month down the road you see your female swelling with eggs...That's what happened with one of my bairdi pairs last season.
good luck
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
(Draybar)
Draybars Snakes

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Black rats don't always immediately breed after shedding. Sometimes they wait a week to 10 days afterwards. I would leave them togather as much a possible and seperate them for feeding. I have noticed that some snakes get very excited right after being fed (seperately), and this is a good time to reintroduce them.

Tim

Third Eye

Directly after being fed? As in feed them and put them together within minutes of feeding? I will try misting them also. The way I am doing it (until someone gives me a better way) is I just put the male in the females cage. He seems slightly afraid of her (won't go in her hide) since there is a considerable size difference. It is not a huge difference (mostly in girth) but enough to make him wary. I guess I will just keep them together for like 3 days and then seperate for 2 and just keep alternating until they get their signals straight.... seem like a plan? Someone suggested that black rats usually don't mate directly after the shed and usually wait until about a week after. So I will just keep trying and post again if nothing else works. Also, do corns typically breed directly (as in a day or two) after their first shed?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!
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.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
.1 MO Locale Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

"You saved my life! I'm gonna get you so many lizards!"