Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Any ideas on getting my female JCP to mate with my diamond/jcp cross? She did three years ago and I swear she was pregnant, showed swelling and unusual body positions such as exposing her abdominal scutes to heat source (several weeks after copulation) but she never layed eggs (despite my making attractive laying areas in the cage). This year she won't have him, despite his very vigorous efforts (spurring, tactile-chase, tail search copulatory attempts, etc). I have cycled him in/out every three days, misted several times daily, dumped water in the cage (raised humidity) and raised temperature/photocycle. Any other ideas?

Have you lowered the night temps and cycled with temps?
Justin J

Yes, and yes. In fact, each winter both my JCP and JCP/diamond cross stop eating when the weather gets cold so I let the cage naturally get lower at night (68 F) and the humidity lessen. They usually don't eat for a few months so I separate them during this time, then I raise humidity, photoperiod, and temperature. When I put them back the male has been trying real hard but she is not receptive. Maybe I should not let her fast as long as the male, as she is a pure JCP and he a JCP/Diamond cross (thus more genetically predisposed to "hibernate"? Here is a picture of her at her best, age 2.5 years. She is still pretty but not like she was then!

here's my advice, don't do it. there are too many impurities being bred into the carpet gene pool and crooses of sub species that when the young are sold they are ualaly passed off as a pure species and then they are cross bred to other pure lines without the knowledge that they are actually crosses. i know this is the new cool thinh to do but if you;re going to breed a cross, breed it to another cross that way you'll be able to sell the offspring as 50x50 crosses instead of 75x25, maybe there's new patterns and colors to be made there. i think a lot of people agree with me on this one. just because you have two snakes of opposeite sex doesn't mean you have to breed them. grant the animals the respect they desreve. schell

I appreciate your input but I feel differently. I think some of the most beautiful snakes around today are crosses, and the JCP-diamonds are at the top of my list. I am not a professional breeder and I am not breeding to re-stock them in Australia, I am doing it to create beautiful pythons. I have attached a photo of my gal when she was 2.5 years old (she has definitely lost some of her luster with age, but still looks beautiful).