Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a trio of Mandarins and a pair of Greens. The male Mandarin has locked up w/one female 4 times spread out over 5 weeks and the other female twice over the same time span. Each copulation averaged 6 hrs. in duration.

The Greens have locked-up twice to date, both for app. 4 hrs.

Neither male showed any interest whatsoever in the females until almost 6 weeks into the cycling period and the temps had averaged 59F for a low, and 70F for a high. Warm-up/daylight cycle was 8 hrs after reducing down from 12/12 day,night.

The ambients in the room are starting to increase naturally and the lows peak at 68F and the highs at 74F....but they both copulated as recently as yesterday.

When should I pull the males and get a good basking area established for the hopefully gravid females? What is the duration from copulation to ovulation...knowing w/that many lock-ups it could be spread out a bit..just looking for an estimate so I can increase my vigilance!

Thanks in advance for your time,

Bill

Bill,

Mine are all easterns but here's what I've got and what I'm doing. I have one gravid female who's gone dark, I stopped putting in the male a while ago. A second female is just starting to go dark, but I was still occasionally throwing the male in. I haven't seen them breed for over month, so I'm going to stop now. Finally, the male and his sister hooked up back in Dec, but she's showed no signs of anything, so I'm still throwing him in. They bred several times this weekend. Who knows, but I'll keep pairing them up until I know she's gravid (or they stop breeding for a month or so).

Even gravid, mine often sit in the back of the cage where its in the upper 50's to lower 60's.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Interesting your "dark" females still stay on the cool side. Cycling always starts a bit later here in Vegas than most parts of the country...my regimen started in Nov. Have any of your females hone opaque during cycling? My green female is opaque now but I'll keep presenting the male after she sheds until I see a long stretch of inactivity.
Bill

Actually, the dark female only occasionally goes to the cold end these days (I figure she's about 4 months along), the other gravid (seeming) animal(who bred mostly in Dec) moves back and forth alot still.

Anyway, I agree with you, keep the putting them together even after she sheds. I think my second female may have quit breeding after she shed the last time, but I'd keep giving them the opportunity and let them decide when to quit.

Dang, when did yours start breeding and how early did you start cycling? Ambients are nearing 70F outside now though a cool front w/rain is due tomorrow..I'll open the door and let the barometric pressure in the room go crazy! I figure I have maybe 3-4 weeks max. Spring sets in for good around here.
Bill

Actually, the first breeding was a suprize. I decided to start throwing things together early (I think in Sept or Oct) because of low fertility in these guys and my Acrantophis last year. I put my young male in with my older "male" and female to stimulate breeding behavior and forgot to check up on them overnight. Thats probably when he and the older female bred. In Dec, I did it again and caught the young male breeding with the older "male" (I just never checked the sex, and also it explains why I got no breeding last year). The first female was already gravid by then. I keep my animals in a basement with a fairly cold background temp to begin with, so maybe that why they scored so early??

I can't stop my male Ground Boa from trying to kill the female every time I've put them together! They were fine together until I moved them into a bigger cage. At app. 5' it may be they're too young...the female instantly recognizes the threat when he's put in w/her...she flees in a panic!

Bill