Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The other night I put my Indigos together. I watched them closely to make sure there was not going to be any combat...and there wasn't. I had also cleaned both cages before putting them together. Within a few minutes the male took a dump in the corner, pretty routine. That night I slept pretty light and I did not hear any bumping in the cage. The next morning I woke up to the worst smell ever. The cage had a few new turds in it, the snakes were at opposite ends coiled up and I was ready to barf. I have gotten pretty accustomed to the smell of Indigo poop, but this was a different smell completely. I did witness plenty of breeding activity earlier in the evening as seen in the picture. Whats up with the smell? Has anyone ever had an experience like this? When cleaning out the cage I almost regurgitated my cheerios.

Uh...Could be the "product" of your male..I've always thought the
sexual effluent of the male is a bad odor..
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Carl W Gossett
Garage Door Herps
Monument,Colorado...northern territory of the Great Republic of Texas

When I put mine together to breed, they've been off food for a few weeks. Regardless if they breed or not, one of them has released some musky, rank smelling... bleh...

I can hardly imagine that being coupled with actual indigo turds. You could probably strip paint with it.

Doug T

"When I put mine together to breed, they've been off food for a few weeks. Regardless if they breed or not, one of them has released some musky, rank smelling... bleh..."

yep, my male who is a 2.5 yo has gone off feed for about four weeks now and this last time has needed a little assistance with shedding. while i was helping with the skin, he was exuding a thick, slimy, whitish solution that was unbelievably foul. of course, he managed to smear this all over my arms and shirt. i took this as a sign of admiration and appreciation. my dogs certainly thought i was interesting afterwards and i had a strange hanker'n for a cigarette.

matt

Yep...could be the "smell of love"

Both sexes can produce some pretty rank musk...that humans find repulsive, but opposite sex indigos probably find to be like sweeet perfume...

"Love is in the air", just try to keep it of your clothes.

Funny. Thanks guys, this thread had me literally rolling. Not sure if I'll ever get the pleasure of this one, so far I just have one male. Sounds like I'm gettin' a good deal in SOME ways. LOL
Thanes Place

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Thane

Oh yeah I can imagine. I have had some experience in smelling object from my snakes, but the smell from 2 males in combat was like smelling 200 wc Natrix in a small box...........
Funny enough the feromons from that terrarium started other snakes even the time for breeing isn`t before spring. I will keep the layer of woodshaving and use them when all the other snakes are out of hibernation
Best wishes
Søe

Dear Zach,

Nice to see you have got your (my) indigos mating. As other people have mentioned, the smell is musk. Indigos normally musk when they are threatened. You told me that the male reacted defensively to the female the first time they were put together, so he is the one who probably musked, at some point after you put them together, but before he settled down and mated her.

You saw the large Unicolor male I had (recently sold). When I first bought him as a subadult, I brought him home and let him free on the carpet. My cat ran over to check him out and the snake musked on me and the carpet, just at the sight of the cat. It serves as a repellant.

Commonly the hatchling Easterns of mine will musk, when held. They get over this behavior as they get older and adapt to human interaction.

Take care, and give me a call.

Robert Bruce.