Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Do they need to be cycled to breed? I was wondering since it is so warm there year round... Also what would a good breeding weight be for them? If one had to guess the sex of this little guy based on tail lenght, what would it be?
Thanks for putting up with all the questions...

Guessing from the tail length I would say that's it's almost surely a male. As far as breeding him, from the looks of the photo and the number of segments on his rattle I would guess he might be a tad young BUT I have heard that atrox have been successfully bred at 18 months (males that is), so it might be possible.

I re-read your post again and realized your breeding question was in reguards to pigmy's. I wouldn't know that answer to that one, as I've never worked with 'em.

Well For the WDB I wanted to know the sex to pair it up with another baby... The pigmys well I'm most likey going to get a pair in the near future so I'm shure that I will have a lot of general care questions about them, and eventualy more indepth when I'm ready to breed them... For the Atrox I have a few years, before I have to worry about breeding advise.. I do have one question though, about cooling them.. If a baby atrox isn't cooled or cycled dose it affect the animal negitivly when it is of age to be cycled for breeding?
Thanks for the help...

I usually don't cool any of my neonate rattlesnakes the first year. I usually keep them at a fairly constant temp all winter and feed them every 2 weeks. With atrox I will usually feed them once a week and just provide a small basking area at one end of the cage for thermoregulation. It should have no ill effect on breeding once they reach sexual maturity. In fact I have heard that atrox can actually be bred without a cooling period but Rich G would be better to comment on that.

ever cooling them down and have no problem. Once they are deemed breeding age they are then placed into hibernation for breeding. I personally play it by ear. I prefer to keep things natural. If a neonate gets really well started I will often give them a short hibernation of 2-3 months(I usually hibernate 4-4.5 months not including a one month period with no food provided) Or I may keep some neonates up for the first year if I think it neccessary. With high elvation species I often just wait a couple weeks after hatching/birth and then put them into hibernation. They seem to do fine this way and usually feed very readily when brought up in the spring, even if they were refusing food in teh fall.