I've an 18 month old male bull I would like to plug into my breeding program this year. He is approx 36" long. My question is if this is an appropriate size/age for sexual maturity? I generally wait till animals are 27 months old and a little bigger. This, I know, is critical for females but was wondering what the experience with males was. Any help appriciated. Thanks in advance.
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Sexual Maturity of Male Bull Snakes (A question)
Tony D
Feb 22, 2005 05:48 PM
Replies (2)
jcherry
Feb 23, 2005 03:26 PM
Tony,
I have in the past we have bred 18 month old males and have had mixed results at best. With corns and a few of the getulas group it has been no problem, but with pituophis we have had less than 50% fertility in the resultant eggs WHEN we could get them to breed. The same pairings a year later and we experienced over 90% fertility. With that in mind we made the decision not to retard the growth of the young males by having to brumate them during the biggest growing spell they will have in their lives and do not even attempt to breed them untill they are at least 2 1/2 yeard old.
Thats our take on them,
John Cherry
Cherryville Farms
Cherryville Farms - Reptiles
Tony D
Feb 23, 2005 05:52 PM
Thats pretty much what I thought. The real danger IMHO is the female having to pass infertile eggs which have a greater tendancy to adhear(sp?). In any case thanks for the thoughtful reply.
