Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi there,
I have a question, I have bred lots of snakes in the past but never redtails. Anyway the 31st I put a pair of surinames and a pair of peruvians together in the female's cages. Today I was looking and the suriname cage is filthy, so I yhought I would clean it. Both snakes are on the shelf so I figured I could change the paper and clean the lower part without disturbing them too much. When I opened the door both snakes came forward agressively. I pushed their heads aside and noticed that their tail were entertwined, They have been in the same position since last night. If this were any othre pair of snakes I have bred I would think they were copulating, however, all of the literature I have read says that redtails leave some space between their tails when they copulate and that you can see the hemipenile penetration. I left the cage dirty so as not to interupt them just in case. Is this a normal position for copulation? Is it maybe a courting thing leading up to the act? The shelf they are on is only 1 foot wide and they fill most of it so maybe there isn't room for seperation. Any advice is appreciated

....... although I couldn't tell you weather or not they're courting or copulating. They'll generally court for a few weeks. In my projects, I've seen boas court for as little as 1 week, and as long as 10 weeks. Also, I don't see actual copulation in every pairing, just on occasion if I'm in the right place at the right time. As hard as it is, I don't clean the cage during any courting, nor is food given. Another thing that I do is - I hang a bed sheet a couple feet from the cages with small holes cut in to spy on them without disturbing them. When they see me walk in front of the cages , they freeze, and I don't get to study their behaviors the way I'd like, unless I became a statue.
Time will tell. Enjoy, and good luck on your ventures.

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--aka DMOG68

Thanks for the advice and the great picture! I will leave them alone and stay out of that side of the snake room, they are off in the corner so they will be easy not to disturb. I have not had much luck posting pictures but I am going to try to put up some of the boa wall. (my kids call it "Boa World" there are 4 cages 4'x2'x2' and a rack that holds 54 shoe boxes (for babies I hope) I can push the boxes back and fit another 36 in at a slight angle for a total of 90. I haven't finished the door on the last cage but the snakes are co=habitating right now so there is no rush. Hope the pic come out and I will get some of the snakes when they lose interest in each other.