even with willing snakes, sometimes inducing hybrids can get difficult due the different mating behaviors of the snakes involved.
right after this photo was taken, the female calligaster shook off the male red milk after he tried biting her. i had move the male milk and the calligaster into another cage with a female female milk for the male to chew on while i moved his tail over to the female calligaster - who then held still for the copulation while the milk was biting the female milk.
meanwhile, the male calligaster was easily switched off to the knob after first getting started up on the female calligaster. as can be seen in the photo, they initiated copulation, but then the knob decided she was done after about 30 minutes, and started dragging the male calligaster around the cage for the next hour. i've had males with longer copulation times than the females they are with slip out before they were ready during other pairings. in such cases, it can be doubtful if insemination actually occured prior to the end of copulation. in this case i think so, but i certainly plan to try and get all of the involved parties together again for another try.
