Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was wondering how many of you have bred a pair of snakes, never witnessed copulation nor ovulation and surprisingly had a clutch of eggs? Just wondering. Thanks.

Im going to say probably no one has had this happen. You dont usually house snakes together unless you are breeding and they are only together for 8-24 hours at a time.

I've produced well over 100 clutches and wholly 8%-10% of them were from pairings where I NEVER witnessed a breeding. I check in on my animals before I leave for work in the morning, when I get home from work, and before I go to bed. As an example; I bred my male lemon blast this season to 4 females, did not witness aa SINGLE copulation, yes produced three awesome clutches from him, one containing a male super blast. It's quite easy to miss a copulation. All it takes is 6-8 hours that you're not around.
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www.strictlyballs.ca

Thats pretty much 90% of my production. Every now and then I'll catch an ovulation, but I tend to leave everything paired up alone and private. When I do take a look, I let body language tell me what I need to know.
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South Central Herpetological

YES ,,,it happens.....sometimes we just don't check on them for days at a time....

.....I've never popped out a sperm plug.....

I've never palpated a female to where I could actually feel the eggs / ovum....(colubrids you cans see and feel)

just throw them together....it will happen

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LOL......

i have a small collection and so far never had more that two gravid females at the same time (this year i hope that will increase)...i always check them to try to confirm copulation, and have always witnessed hookups, but have never been able to detected a positive ovulation like the ones in the pictures...
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Neutiquam erro. Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt.

I'm in my snake tubs almost every day -- so I usually at least catch the ovulation. So whereas I haven't had a surprise clutch yet --- I have missed copulations.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

the is this a yellowbelly post i put up a few days ago was a surprise clutch. never saw lockup, never saw ovulation.didn't she was prego and in fact i didn't realise she was sitting on eggs when i first looked in on her.

I'm with Eric on this one. I am so busy with everything else going on in my life (school, work, 3 kids, a wife) that during breeding season, I pretty much let them be. 2-3 times a week I rotate the males and offer food, water and clean.

Most of the time I miss every indicator that even tells me the female is gravid.

I've tried to palpate but when I was younger I worked as both an assistant chef in a Chinese restaurant (woks are HOT!) and at a factory where I handled very hot materials and ruined most of the sensation in my finger tips.

Put them together and if both the male and female are ready it'll happen. You can follow some of the breeding tips and tricks offered a little lower on the page. Nature will take care of everything else.

wow thanks i didn't know it was going to go on this long thanks again!!!