Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I remember reading a post on here about a year ago where someone had seen their male evert a hemipenis and when the snake drew it back inside some semen was left behind.

If you are reading this and it was you who mentioned it, could you please tell me a little more? Like when in the season you saw him do this and if it was with or without a female present. Anything else would be great too.

The reason I ask is I was at a "show-and-tell" at my herp society last night and my 2 year old male snake did this while holding him. I thought it was particularly weird since I was holding him, but I also figured that if he would ever do it it would be during breeding season and not now. There were a bunch of other snakes around at the time, but no other cornsnakes, so I don't even think mere female presence made him do it (unless he doesn't care what species he is with).

At least now I know that my snake really is a male.
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alstiver@hotmail.com

Currently own:
1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla Coil)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
0.0.3 Goldfish (Kabuki, Isamu, and Yuki)
1.0 '99 American Eskimo x ? mutt (Rusty)

Soon to be added:
1.0 '03 or '04 Type II Anery Nicaraguan boa
0.1 '03 or '04 Hypo Nicaraguan boa

I've seen stress cause this once or twice. How used to being taken out in public is your snake?

--Naamah

I've seen this happen in rooms where there are several people in the room. I suspect it could have to do with fragrances. Specifically colognes or after shave lotions. I realize you might have been in a room with youngsters, but if there were any adults in the room, it's possible that one of them was wearing an alluring fragrance that included pheromones.

It's no accident that some colognes and perfumes actually do elicit romantic response from the opposite gender. Hormomes and/or pheromones are sometimes incoporated into these fragrances to elicit a chemical reaction. It is my belief that some of them actually resemble the attraction that a female corn in estrus does.

Otherwise, yes. I too have seen a hemipenile eversion provoked by aggitation or stress.

If you have or use different fragrances, note any reactions you get from one to another. If you discover that one is particularly provocative to the males, you might want to avoid wearing that one around them.

Note that this s just my theory based on unscientific observations.

Don
www.cornsnake.NET
South Mountain Reptiles

I guess it very well could have been pheromones, but it was probably stress. He did seem much more jumpy than usual about being handled. I guess I just pushed him to be out and about more than he wanted to be. I have used him before at herp displays, but maybe it just wasn't a good day for him. I'll keep this in mind next time I do a display.

Thanks.

Interesting. I had noticed that my animals HATE it when I wear perfume, or use scented lotions or soaps. Most also don't like to be handled by perfume-y people. I tend not to wear fragrances anyway as I have a really hyper-sensitive nose, but it is interesting to hear corroboration that the animals, in fact, respond to this, and that I'm not just making this up too keep people off me at the perfume counter!

--Naamah