Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just thought I'd share this little bit of info for all of you interested in young corns being gravid. This girl was not intentionally bred, but kept on display with her future mate for several months until she got up to around 9 months in age. My thought was that I seperated them in plenty of time to avoid early breeding, but I was mistaken.

She is 175 grams, and just a hair over 30" long. I palpated her and figure about 7 eggs; I guess we'll see how fertile they end up being. The male she supposedly bred to was even smaller, I'd say no bigger than 25" or so. She has not yet had a pre-lay shed, so I'm not expecting eggs for another 4 weeks yet. Just a heads up for those who figure their animals are just too small or too young to breed - they're probably not. The eggs don't seem exceptionally large, even compared to her body size, so I'm hoping she'll have no trouble passing them. I'm hoping at least I'll get some good looking, healthy babies out of this and next year I'll give her the entire year off to recuporate and put on more size before attempting to breed her again.

-Christian-

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"Game over man, game over!"

It's amazing, at least in my opinion, just how young a male can be and breed. I have a 28 inch female that I plan on breeding next year. Recently, when cleaning boxes, I placed a 22 inch male in with this female. He was trying to hump her almost immediately. He was only with her for a couple of minutes while I setup a clean box so the deed was not done but he was sure trying.
The danger in breeding a real young female is that it stunts their growth and their egg production. I have one female that is an example of this. She was accidentally bred, had a small infertile clutch of 3 eggs. Well, now at 4 years of age, she is smaller than the other adults acquired at the same time. She also has only produced 3 eggs in any clutch. 3 good, fertile eggs, but only 3. She will remain in my collection for her entire life. I will never be able to sell her as a Proven Breeder, etc. Whom would want to spend the time and money to care for a female that only produces 3 hatchlings, once a year.
It's definitely better to wait that extra year and be more careful about putting 2 or more sub-adults in the same box.

I have housed a male/female together and can not understand why she isn't gravid. They are both adults and he hasn't went on his cruising like he has done every year before I bought her. I don't know how to tell if she's gravid, so I've left a egg box in there. She always crunches up her body to make it look like she would have eggs, but she also did this in the winter.

>>I have housed a male/female together and can not understand why she isn't gravid. They are both adults and he hasn't went on his cruising like he has done every year before I bought her. I don't know how to tell if she's gravid, so I've left a egg box in there. She always crunches up her body to make it look like she would have eggs, but she also did this in the winter.
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Jimmy (draybar)

I noticed in young females that even unfertilized ova are much easier to feel. I have several females here that have had no contact with males since thier hatch and have very palpable lumps. One now is even refusing food right now because of them. So maybe you were too late in separting them, but you also may have got him out in time and she is just ovulating. In the second case, hopefully she will just absorb the eggs. Good Luck!