Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Some behaviors I've observed the last few weeks:
1)TAIL-WAGGING by female:
The details: '01 male albino, proven breeder in '03
'01 female het albino (1850 gm), first breeding late December. Cycling the male between 2 hets and 2 normals. On introducing the male to this het female the second time in mid January, the female slowly started wagging her tail from side-to-side, which went on for at least 30 minutes before ceasing observations. Pair found mating about 4 hours or so later. I've seen this behavior in colubrid snakes but never in any other female BP. This female has been staying on the cool side of the cage since about the time of this second pairing.
2)HYPERACTIVITY by male upon introduction to female:
The details: '01 male butterscotch ghost, no interest in
breeding in '03
'99 het female, proven breeder with diff male
in '03
Upon introducing the male to this het female, the male gets kind of nutsy and starts pushing against the walls of the enclosure, the female, and the water bowl. Within 3-4 hours he was breeding the female. This behavior was observed after the second introduction with this female but not the first. The albino male never exhibits this hyper activity. Female still staying on the warm end of the enclosure.

Anybody else ever see these behaviors in their pairings? Just curious.

Scott J. Michaels DVM

The females of EVERY single boid species I've bred tail wag like a rattler when they don't want to breed. I get it every year. The females that do it the most usually don't go, but tend to go BIG TIME the next year. Its weird.

I've noticed the Carpet Python complex do it the most. Boas and Rainbow Boas as well.
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...the thing about it is they locked up within 4 hours and remained so for at least 12 hours. It wasn't the quick tail-wagging you see in colubrid snakes, rather a slow side-to-side thing.

Regarding boa constrictors...I bred a fair # in the 90's (about 20 clutches between occ, Hoggs, Suri's and Guyanas) and I don't ever recall seeing it in them.

Anyways.

Thanks again and good luck! SJM

Couple more decades of good observations and maybe we'll figure out what's going on with the dammm snakes. LOL!!!

Best of luck this season and future seasonsss....

Hi Scott,

I have seen several females do the tail wagging but not that often.

My original pastel male does what you describe most of the time when introduced to a female. I always have to remove the water bowl because he always spills it with his violent girations. I have found my deli cup linings completely flattened. I have seen him twist and flip upside down. It's almost like he does this dance to ward off any other males that he thinks might be present or he might be displaying a macho dance for the female.

I have also noticed that the ones he is most active with are usually the ones that he doesn't end up locking up with the first time. It's almost like he's saying, "What are you putting me in here for? She is not ready for me yet!"

Interesting!

MJ
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...nice to know I don't have the only nutsy male BP...last year at around 800 gm he had no interest in breeding this female...this year at about 1000 gm he's doing substantially better...nutsy and all. Hey he can do backflips as long as he busts a nut! SJM

Hi Scott, I have observed the tail wagging on numerous occasions and cloacal gaping. This year, my 23 year old female actually copulated with a young 800g male. What is wierd about that? She did a role reversal by sliding up along side him and flipped his tail to get him to respond. I am not quite sure he knew what to do. I am thinking of changing her name to Mrs. Robinson.

The side slamming I observe not only with my ball python males, but also my short-tailed pythons. They rough up the females until the let them align cloacas.

Neat stuff, huh? The best is seeing an active spurring by a male. Now that is funny.

Yeah the ghost male does a lot of spurring and twicking the het female before he locks up with her.

Those older females really know what to do!

Thanks again and good luck! SJM

yes

I've seen females going nuts and males......pushing and shoving..made me think I had 2 males...but i knew they weren't.....

had males this year do this...I thought they were fighting female for some reason......pulled them (2 male) both out from 2 females and put them together to fight it out amounst them selelves for a half hour.....

they bred female before......and after...but on a couple occasions they fought like you said...all over the cage walls.....

female tail activity..yes......

I've seen females jump on top of males.....kingsnakes I've seen female more or less jump on male and force him to breed her,,,,,,,,(she was alot bigger ,his first year at it)....
females initiate in balls,yes........

they get odder and odder every year............

good luck...............

np

I bred balls because a few of my friends got morphs and had alot of trouble with them........they wouldn't breed...and some died.......

......so I got a bunch of balls.........and bred them all....every female laid.......

wonder how it is so hard for them?....hahahahaa

.....I haven't had perfect luck since then....good....but not all perfect......

.......I do it for the fun,I like to breed something.......have been since I was a little kid with rabbits or pigeons......and now....for the extra money....but it has become alot of work.......

have fun.........JY