Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is my first year breeding, so I want to make sure I try to do everything right.

My albino male has been breeding my 9' argentine female for over 2.5 months. it started with courting for a few weeks, then I caught them locked up in copulation several times over a period of 3 weeks or so. I have seperated them a few times to rest the male. I pulled the male out again last week, and I just noticed the ovulation swelling in the female yesterday. What do you recommend? Is the job done, or should I re-introduce my male briefly?

The reason Im asking, I have my boa book in front of me, it says that sometimes when the female swells, people can misidentify this as her being gravid, and pulling out the male too early can cause slugs.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated

Put him back in and leave him until he shows no interest in the female.

I keep reading about males "breeding themselves to death." When the male just wont snap out of breeding phase. Has me nervous as heck

If i were gonna go, thats how i'd want it to be lol. Good luck man hope it works out for ya.
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now i dont have any experience to back this up but ...

i think the male would only be able to breed himself to death if he were 'allowed' to breed himself to death. that is, if he were left in with a female for that long. i am assuming that for a snake to be bred to death, it would have to exhaust all energy stores. if you give a 'mandatory' break from breeding, by removing the male from any females and giving him a meal or two, i would think there should be nothing to worry about.

good luck with them. in my eyes i feel that as long as the male is not attempting to breed like seven females in a row and is given time to recover and replenish energy stores, everything should be fine.

If you do not want to risk losing your animal then you should not attempt to breed them.

Harsh I know, but many things can go wrong when attempting to breed your animals.

Good luck, and if it was me I would put the male back in with her until he loses interest in her altogether.

Bob McPhee

There is something to be said about feeding males midstream of the breeding cycle. According to one popular boa breeding video, males and females aren't fed until after the breeding season is over. Some have said that if you feed a male during the breeding season, he loses interest in the female. So the questions are:

1) When to feed a male and not miss an opportunity to fertilize the female.

2) When to feed the female as I've heard that feeding a female after cooling and introduction of the male can "kick start" her into ovulation.

My cooling ended a week ago, I've seen several hookups, my female looks like she's plumping up. Whenever I take a look at the cage, both extend upwards as if they're expecting their next meal. The female strikes at the top of the cage.

Thanks for your help!

As much respect as I have for all the top breeders and the videos they put out, I think you need to find what works best for you. I don't cool any of my animals and have never had a problem getting them to breed as long as they had the proper size and maturity. If I find the male off the female for a day or two taking a break, I will usually pull him out and feed him. I have never had this make him lose interest. I also had a female ovulate this year before a male was ever introduced to her. I fed her a meal, and the next day she had a HUGE ovulation. When I saw this, I put a male in immediately, but I don't know if she'll take this year or not. Anyhow, for me this works, but it may not work for everyone. I have never cooled my boas as I don't like the risks involved with it and I have never changed their feeding patterns prior to introducing them for breeding. I have also never had a male or female go off food while courting or while gravid. Just my experiences.

Matt Crabe

If either the male or female go into shed in most cases I have seen that will interrupt the advances of the male,I take this opportunity to seperate them and feed both.I understand this is not the case in all Boas,I have actually heard of a male breeding a female while she was actually removing her skin.Bottom line if the male looks good(no sagging skin etc.)appears to breed with gusto then I say let them have thier fun when he is done he will move off.The last thing I would want is to see my female dying with a belly full of slugs.You really ought to understand that breeding is risky for your animals.My male albino got hammered this year by a female that was tired of his advances.took him almost three months just to get started but when he started he didnt climb back off for a full 15 days I witnessed what I thought to be copulation more than once a day for the entire period.Then he got off on day 16.On the 16th night I got in from work was watching the news and heard her hit him.I was fortunate enough to be right thereor she would have killed him.Sorry so long!Hope this helps!JOHN