Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Fall or spring? better yet, when do you see meaningful copulation that leads to viable eggs. Thanks

Hey Frank.
For me, personally, I see breeding activity roughly 3 weeks after brumation. I have had great results doing it this way. Lots of good, viable eggs and high hatch rates. I will usually have my snakes out of brumation within the month of Feb. However, I did notice copulation in one particular male/female pair in August. They were together all season and did nothing. No breeding, no interest at all. Not until I shipped then to Florida to display at the Daytona reptile show. They were copulating when they were unboxed and did so for 4 days straight. Something must have sparked them. Pressure change maybe? However, the female does not seem to be gravid. The lock was confirmed but she has yet to become gravid.

Thank you Gregg. Any more out there with info.

I ask from a field point of view. So far, hahahahahaha, males, at least unpaired males are seeking females starting now to dead of winter, in nature. My captive males also are starting to attend(pester the crap out of) females now.

This is also a common behavior with Crots. But the important copulations seem to be as you mentioned(so far)

Also something that's really interesting is, even neonates follow eachother in the late fall. Again thanks

Hi Frank, I do it a similar way to Gregg like i think most do, 3-4 weeks after brumation they start going at it, I do however not put my hognoses in Fridges, I find turning the heatmats off for 6-8 weeks and leaving them at a room temp of 65-70F works everytime for me.. But i do have a few females that have bred at really weird times and that have not gone through brumation..... Oddballs as with a few of my males that will breed a female without brumation lol ANYTIME of the year, One thing i do know is Hognoses are full of surprises sometimes. Cheers Lance