I brumated my pair of chucks for 6 weeks (took them out of brumation on April 12th) in hopes of getting them to breed. I only got the pair last year but they both looked so good (nice weight, etc.)I thought it couldn't hurt them. The male has never done any pushups. Both of them are eating like crazy and had good weight on them before going into and coming out of brumation. Lately, I've seen the male a few times strongly nudge the female on the side of her neck and it looked as if he was about to bite her neck. Just today, I noticed a lot of secretions coming out of his femoral pores (kind of reminds me of a fringe toed lizard scales). The secretions are long and waxy looking. Do you think he might just now be coming into breeding condition? How long after brumating do chucks generally display the most? About 16 years ago, I had a male chuck that would do pushups all the time but this one never does even though he is bigger than that other one.
My main question is to those of you with experience breeding chucks. How often do male chucks forego pushups and still try to mate? I've seen that with collared lizards before and even different species of chameleons where the male will shorten or even eliminate much or all of the ritualistic displays. The female seems to be getting huge although I don't see and lumps that look like eggs. I'm really hoping that this male gets busy soon because I don't want her to end up carrying unfertilized eggs.
