Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so i've had my black pines out of brumation since 3/6 and they both started eating 5 days later, i kept them apart for 1 week after thier first meal then put them together. i only seperated them for feeding and then put them back together after 2 days. they shed on 4/7 and 4/9 and comenced to courting there after.the male weighed 1200g and the female weighed 1260g going into hibernation and they each lost 15 grams respectivley.

i have seen the male courting the female numerous times but have never seen actual copulation. i seperated them a week ago because feel like they've had thier fill and my male hasn't eaten since 3/30 and is looking a little skinny by pine standards.

i figured the male would chill out abit but for a full week he did nothing but circle his cage,so i put them back together and again he went for her tail rattle and all.

so my question is what is going on? i've never bread pines before but i hear there kinda wierd like that?

should i just stud him out to somebodies ball python and name the hybrid chocolate salty balls or what.lol but seriously?

I do not know if this holds true across the board, but in my experience all of my successful breedings with black pines were with females 1.5 kg or more. she may just need another good season of rodents.
another possibility is that you may have put them together too late. I have had a number of pits of several subspecies that do not consistently have that first shed. Once I get them out of brumation, I feed the girls well for 3 weeks or so and then start introductions.

just my $1.00, rated for inflation= $.04

daveb

the person i got them from bread them last year and had 5 eggs with one slug they are now 4 years old. i'd say she is easily 1500g now i'm goin to take them to a larger scale tommorow to see exact weights. As i stated before the male has courted her many times i just haven't seen actual copulation they were only apart for a week and a half before i put them together. when i pulled them apart they had been together for two monthes solid. my question is more whats going on with my male and should i even worry about him not eating for a month and a half? I'm pretty sure with all the courting there has been at least a couple succesfull copulations but i'm not to worried if not.

or is everyone on this post busy dealing with babies? hopefully!

I second what dave said about timing. with pits I just start putting them together after a few meals in the spring. That tends to be the last time the males will feed until the females stop sending pheromone signals. I generally give the females a couple of days to digest then toss in the male for a few days, pull him out, feed and repeat until she is obviously gravid, i.e. going into her pre-laying shed. The pines tend to really show the eggs, while some of the catennifer do not always look gravid.

Some of my males, especially northerns are pretty obvious when it comes to breeding but others less so. I have never seen my blks copulate and the santa cruze island gophers are quite shy as well.

I often note abrasions around the cloaca of the females from copulatory activity so check for that.

It is pretty tough to watch really nice males getting all crazy in their enclosures, nose rubbing and anorexic, jacked up on testosterone.

thanks ginter! it seems like i'm doing everything right. i have noticed some abrasions on her cloaca and shes starting to get obviously fat so i was pretty sure they got the job done.
this is my first time breeding pines and the blacks have always been my favorite so its hard for me to see my boy getting all skinny and freaked out in his cage. all i wanted was some reasurence from somebody so i thank you for your reply.
your snakes are always gorgeous and one of these years i might have to pick one up from you!