Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My jungle male refused food today for the first time. So, after earlier attempts at pairing him with a couple of females he has finally shown interest in my female salmon. Watching him use his spurs while he rides her all around the cage is a wonderful site! However, I am not too thrilled with her response. She does not like the attention and keeps trying to "buck" him off. Now my question is, does this mean she is not ready to breed? I realize they have only been together for a half of a day, but in my limited breeding experience all of my successfull attempts involved willing females from the start. My thought is to give it a few days and see how things go. The reason for my impatience is that I have a nice normal female I would like to pair him with as well this season but obviously my salmon has priority. Being that it is already fairly late in the season, time may be of the essence. Any tips on how long to wait before switching females, behavior, or others' experience would be very helpful.

Thanks
Steve - sdi

Well I understand your delema. My Hypo female did not want to be messed with by a male either. She spent about a week trying to elude the male and wasn't being cooperative. But as I had predicted, the males attention to her,(I believe) sent her into a hormonal shed cycle. I removed the male and waited for her to finish the cycle, in which BTW, seemed to be different than a normal shed by how she layed on her sides more in a big circle. After the shed she was alot more receptive to him, and now she ovulated, and is 4 days into her POS.
It's hard when you have miltiple females and one male to juggle. The one thing I would try to avoid is switching him every few days back & forth, for he may not finish with either. A back-up male would be ideal (even if not a Jungle). As long as he's interested, I'd leave him in there, until you're convinced that she's not going to be receptive then maybe make the switch to the other. Patients is key in breedings with these snakes. I'm learning that more and more each year. Good luck. Keep us posted.
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--aka DMOG68