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My buddy gave me a pair of 4 or 5 year old black pines this past fall. They have succesfully locked up the past 2 years but have yet to succesfully lay any eggs. I know this could be due to a number of things, but what is you alls experience. How often do you see your snakes locked up only to find that they do not produce any eggs down the line? Let me add, that both male and female are fed very well so weight is not an issue. Do you think it is just bad timing or could something else be going on?

Just another observation, but the male chews on the females neck pretty bad during breeding, I would say it is borderline rape! Do you all experience this as well. I also keep hognoses and have yet to see them demonstrate this behavior. Just curious, as I would like these snakes to produce some offspring this year!

Sometimes breeding can be pretty vicious. Others is can be sweet and sensuous with lots of body rubbing and what we might call foreplay. When it's vicious it is flat out rape.

The lack of eggs could be due to not brumating the snakes during the winter. With many snakes the males won't produce sperm or viable sperm without being cooled. The female may not even produce follicles to produce eggs either. They go through the motions because of the time of year but nothing is there to fertilize or be fertilized.

With my breeders they stop feeding sometime in the late fall and I give them several weeks to digest whatever may still be in their guts. Then I drop the temps a little each week until I have them in the 50-55 degree range. I'll leave them like this a minimum of 6 weeks but usually up to 3 months. Late Feb. or early Mar. I start bringing temps up to normal and feed the female as much as she will eat. Males I tend to try to keep on the cool side and will offer food but not like I do the females. After a few weeks of this I will try to introduce the male and watch what happens. Normally nature takes it's course they lock up, sometimes for hours. With pines I'll leave them together for a week or so or until I see the male has lost interest.

The female I will keep feeding heavily until she decides to stop feeding. When they are developing eggs it gets hard for the female to handle eating. Now it's time for a laying box.

If you need more than that let me know.

Hope this helps.
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BigT
There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. The ignorant can be taught, stupidity is beyond our control.
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Thanks for the info., They have been cooled since November and I plan to warm it up in late February (temps ranging from 50-60F - averaging around 55F). However, I did not realize that they may not produce viable sperm/follicles without long enough/cool enough brumation periods. Thanks for the info. Hopefully everything will work out this year. Once they awake I will try and post some photos, hopefully of them locked up!

It is pretty funny though, as the hognoses always seem to be gentle and arouse each other, while the pines are just brutal.

In years when I didn't cool long or cold enough I have had very poor fertility in my collection. Plenty of copulation, but most females didn't lay eggs, and those that did gave me infertile clutches.

I also have a couple snakes that have never reproduced, even after several years. It seems like some snakes are just "duds" when it comes to that.