Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, here's my situation.....

I have 2 beautiful ball pythons (one male 9yrs old and one female 7yrs old) who have been lovingly sharing the same cage for 6yrs now. During mating season they always mate in a quiet behaved fashion and I just always see them with their little tails together. This year is different as I am noticing much more aggressive behavior with my boy towards my girl and it is so much so that I have been keeping them separated for the first time in 6yrs!! My boy gets rather harsh with her and violent in the cage shoving the logs around to get to her.... this is so unlike him! I would like to know if anyone has experience with this kind of mating behavior? Why now, after six years is he acting this way, and will it stop, so I can put them back together? Thanks if anyone has advice.

Dawn

Maybee the female is being stingy with her stuff....
I all reality its sounds like normal breeding behavior.
Travis
-----

LAIR OF DRAGONS

Has the female ever laid eggs? If not, are you sure of their sexes?

Yes, she is female and never laid eggs. They have been mating for 7yrs now fine, all of a sudden this year he's getting very aggressive with her, this is just not his behavior. :-/

They have been together all this time and have mated every year and she hasn't laid eggs? This could be normal mating behavior, but it Maybe it's time to have her re-sexed
-----
Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae quae fecerat Dominus Deus...

Agreed, this sounds like when I threw a young male who didn't seem interested in breeding in with an older male. There was a bunch of rapid wild chasing around the tank.

Then next day when I put the small male in with a girl the lock came quickly... Something about inducing testosterone production, perhaps?

Howdy Dawn,

Could you post a few pictures of the two snakes and their set-up? That might give us a few more details about what is going on.

Also, HOW were the sexes of the two snakes confirmed? Visual popping of the hemipenes? Probing? Who did the sexing? How long ago were they sexed?

We're asking about the sexes because, although they have been getting along previously, this recent behavior sounds exactly like introducing two males.
-----
25 year old 0.1 from Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly, 2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband