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I had set up an experimental 20 gallon tank with four female thayeri in it to see how well they would coexist together. They seemed to be getting along very well. They mostly layed around together in a big jumbled pile. The whole bunch of them tended to hang out in the hide and come out at night and spill the water out of the water bowl. Last night I saw some activity in the tank so I went over to see what was going on and noticed one of my "females" was trying to lock up with another female.
I ended the experiment right then and there. I have not probed the suspect yet.
I'm wondering, has anyone seen this kind of behavior in any of their female snakes? Or is this a definate sign that my female has grown some huevos (balls). LOL

Here's a pic of the suspect. All 4 of them are 2003 CB's

I would think that the "suspect" is a male.

I've heard of males attempting to mate with males before, but never females and females.

Mike
Michael's Place

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I have seen females "twitch" and follow other females, but if this was actually tail under tail manuvering I think you better get your snakes re-sexed.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Well I dug out the probes last night and re-probed not only the snake in question but my entire collection. I found that I have one other snake that I had held back as a female that turned out to be a male. I'm keeping the one in the pic I posted but I've got too many males now so I'll have two 2003 sub-adult male thayeri for sale.

not that i've been 100% perfect at following this advice, either. but we would all be well-served to follow this simple advice:

ALWAYS sex snakes when you get them to confirm genders, no matter how expert the seller might be.

i recently got a near-adult pyro from a very experienced breeder, bought it as a female, did NOT probe it for confirmation, and a month later not only discovered it was a MALE, not a female, but discovered that by observation after it had been put with a known male and another true female overnight: (I had put what i thought were two het/albino females with an albino male). The fact that the one true het/albino female spent the night with a HET male as well as the albino male i intended for her, means that all the normal looking babies will have to be kept (or sold) as only POSSIBLE het albinos. That's a huge waste of future breeding stock and of lost sales.

So ALWAYS SEX SNAKES WHEN YOU GET THEM TO CONFIRM GENDERS, NO MATTER HOW EXPERT THE SELLER MIGHT BE.

peace
terry

Great advice Terry. But the screw up was entirely my own. These were holdbacks I produced and sexed in 2003. And I'll admit, back in 2003 I had alot less experience probing snakes especially neonates.

On the other hand I purchased this snake as a female, but he turned out to be a male. It took me 3 or 4 months to dicover that though. The breeder was very reputable and made it right. I've kept him because of his outstanding genes and appearance.