Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Let me know if you are familiar with this. I placed a virgin female in with a smaller male. They hooked up in a matter of minutes. Then to my surprise, there was blood. It appeared to be coming from the female, since the male never bled before with his other breedings. I gave her a day off, then introduced them again, and she hooked up again except with no blood. Then the third night, I put them together again, and I got a bit more blood. Any idea of what this is? Neither snake appeared to be in pain or discomfort at all.

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n/p

I don't recall seeing any blood but that bedding matted on the "organs" sure looks uncomfortable like it could cause some bleeding.? I like dry Cypress mulch - the chunky style.

I would suggest newpaper if you don't wanna go w/ Cypress mulch - at least while they are breeding.

I have seen blood before durring mating. In the case of the female that I had, I was young (14 at the time) and I had four WC Black Rats. Well, back then, we didn't know how to tell the sexes apart, and we let the female breed to often in that case. In the end, all the males and the female were just fine.

I agree with Mike that you might want to change the bedding. You might try putting the two snakes together for only one mating, and then wait a few days before they get a chance to breed again. In the wild the male seeks out the female, they breed once, and they both go off not to cross paths again. They don't stay together to keep mating. Rat snake hemipenes have barbs that help to keep them coupled while the mating takes place. Those barbs could very well be causing the bleeding.