Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Alright, so far here's what I've seen. The follicles seem to have gotten larger, but haven't the past few days. The female is less active and lays loose and slightly off center. As for males, I put in another male because the first male was seemingly getting "lazy". For some reason this next male would ONLY court the other male. I'd pull him and set him on the female in case he was "confused". He would instantly go back to the other male???? Something similar to garter snakes given off pheremones to keep other males away??? Once I removed the first male, the second male took about 10 minutes to concede his efforts to the female. She doesn't seem receptive to him, but he's courting/spurring pretty actively while she twitches him away. Hoping for ovulation soon, and I'm going to try my best to catch it so I can get some pics. I hope it's visual enough to see in a pic, if/when it happens. I can palpate 10 follicles by the way. I'll try to keep anyone that is interested up to date via the forum. I'm guessing with the lack of replies nobody really has these things nailed down, so hopefully anything I record can help all of us.

Oh yeah, in my searching I've seen a bit of "how big does the male actually have to be...." type questions. So, I will get approx. length and weights for everyone too. My finger is bigger around than the male that is courting now, and the first male is maybe as thick as my index finger.

The bigger male is 128 grams, smaller male is only 58 grams.

Well, that has been the recurring theme from every source I've looked up. I have ran 3 seperate males and every one of them has at least courted and one I had a confirmed copulation with. The last male I put in with her actually courted my hand about 6 months ago, then went to town on his water bowl for a little while after putting him back in the cage. Well, just more info on what's going on. Maybe this will help someone else down the road. I'll probably try a couple more males just to see what they do. Unless she ovulates soon????

WHERE DO YOU LIVE?...THIS IS JULY...CANDOIA SHOULD NOT BREED IN THE SUMMER MONTHS...THEY NEED TO BE COOLED DOWN FOR 30 OR 45 DAYS PRIOR TO INTRODUCTION....IF SHE BECOMES GRAVID, SHE WILL MOST LIKELY PRODUCE UNFERTILIZED OVA...JERRY

I live in Illinois. Although I agree it's an unusual time of year, she started developing follicles on her own. With other species, such as BCI, babies have been produced in every month of the year. I have successfully palpated follicles in various species in very similar situations and had success doing so. So, if you're "cycling" them what are you hoping for? The female to start developing follicles? She's doing it on her own. So, is it temp. dependent, or as others believe food cycles/adequate reserves? Females that go by "our" schedules slug out all the time. My males show no interest in any other females. They all show interest in her. I guess I should take things a step further and see if I can get some sperm to put under a microscope to see if the males are fertile at this time. I'll get on that and report back. But, your reply seemed negative. I hope you're not wishing for bad results. Have you palpated females in the past? If so, what was your experience? If not, how long are your males working females until you get an ovulation, or how many ovulations have you actually been able to observe? Is there a pre-ov shed, post-ov shed, a HCP, a pre-birth shed. Just stuff I'm looking for whether she produces babies or slugs, all these steps should still occur.

NOW, WHY WOULD I HOPE FOR BAD RESULTS?...WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?....STRANGE....I WAS NOT BEING NEGATIVE...I'VE JUST NEVER TRIED TO BREED ANYTHING IN THE DEAD OF SUMMER BEFORE....I HAVE NEVER PALPATED A SNAKE ...I HAVE NEVER WEIGHED A SNAKE ...I USE THE OLD FASHIONED METHOD...MOTHER NATURE...WITH A SIDE OF FATHER TIME....JERRY

Whew! Good, it's hard to tell sometimes, especially in the caps, but I know you use caps all the time. Anyway, I do agree the timing is odd. I generally try to breed by observing behavior of the animals, and the standard cycling methods. If we hadn't noticed her developing follicles, I wouldn't even consider putting a male with her right now. My main concern with the season is fertility of the males. No headway on scoping a sperm sample, but I'm still trying to get it done.

Do please keep posting your observations: I've got nothing useful to contribute but I'm REALLY interested! Pics help too.

And good luck!
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