Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Please excuse a dumb question, but what is the earliest possible age that a female pituophis can breed? I have all my pits separate that are over a year old mainly to prevent unwanted premature breeding of my females. I know how old the females SHOULD be, but not how old they can get "knocked up" at, so to speak.

To clarify my question, what is the youngest possible age a female could ovulate at?

Pyromaniac, there is no hard and fast formula for breeding size of female snakes of any species. Breeding ability is mainly a matter of size and weight. The females of any respective species needs to have the necessary mass to produce viable eggs and pass them through the cloaca. So, you can have a snake with sufficient mass at 18 months, or close enought to put in brumation and breed her that spring. Most say wait until at least their third year of life, basically hibernating them when they are 2.5 and breeding them the spring before they turn three that summer. Growth is an individual matter with each snake, and within their species. The question you should be asking is what is the minimum size and weight necessary to breed the species you are interested in breeding. For corns, I wait til the females are at least 32 inches, preferably closer to 36 inches and probably 1.5 in diameter. Males can go around 30 inches. Due to pits being larger in general, I am sure there minimum size and weight will be greater pending on the pit species. I would suspect a gopher species can breed at a smaller size than a bull or pine species.

Thanks for the good reply.
My concern is that my pits (bulls and Pacific gophers) that I have in pairs together would mate before the female was big or developed enough. Like, just because she can ovulate at a certain age does not mean she should be bred at that time. To be on the safe side I have separated anyone who is over a year old.

I wonder what snakes do in the wild; when a female snake is ovulating in the wild and laying down scent for the males to find her, it seems she would breed then whether or not she was a suitable size by our estimates.

In the wild, there are those that live to reproductive maturity (size) and those that don't. Mortality is the only thing in the life cycle of a wild snake that happens prematurely. In my experience working with timber rattlesnakes years ago, not every female of reproductive age was bred every year. Only about 60% in a good year when food was plentiful ( a function of condition plus size and age). During years when food was less abundant (generally lagging poor acorn crop years, 15 - 30% of the aged females would be bred and of those, fewer would carry all the way to term and produce a litter. In our living rooms and as long as our snakes feed well, there are far fewer limitations...

My concern is based on people having snakes bred too small or young, whichever, and getting egg bound. If this ever happened to a wild female who would know? She would just die and be eaten by ants or something.

Yeah, but a female in the wild without sufficient mass probably wouldnt ovulate or produce "breed me" phermones. They can also flee any male snooping around if they are not ready to breed. I tried breeding a female corn several years ago that was on the cusp size/mass wise. The male was aggressively trying to court her, but she kept fleeing him and tail rattling. It could be in captivitiy where they cannot flee, they may get impregnated too early. Once again, find out the suggested size/mass for breeding the females of the species you are working with. If in doubt, wait another year.