Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 4 year old female St Mary's Co temporalis that just laid slugs 2 years in a row. Last year I thought it was because she was young so I gave her another year. But now at 4 years old, very healthy and about 30 inches long I'm wondering if there is something I'm doing wrong with these or possibly working with nonviable male or female. Any insight would be helpful.

Stu my temps are consistently among the earliest of my snakes to lay. My schedules is up Feb 1 and I usually have temp eggs by March 15. If I want them to be fertile I introduce the pairs as soon as they emerge. Often times I will even hibernate the pairs together which I think is fairly critical if you have a particularly warm winter.
-----
“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emmerson

WWW.TDSNAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

Appreciate the tip Tony. Maybe that's what I'm doing wrong. I cool mine with everything else from nov to mar. Maybe I will try housing them together and bring them up earlier next year.

Stu,

I'm with Tony on this one. How soon after cooling are you pairing them up? Almost all of my temperate milks (including gentilis, multistrata, taylori, syspila, etc.) are paired and breed within 2-3 week out of cooling, often sooner. If you wait much longer, they'll drop duds in my experience. My celaenops and a some of the other "southern tier" critters are a little different, often waiting a month or better before locking up.

Also, how warm is your male getting prior to breeding? I've heard convincing arguments for keeping breeder males slightly cooler (under 78F, or so) until the end of the breeding season.
-----
_______________________

-Cole

Cole,
I gave mine a long cool winter (3-1/2 months) and introduced them starting within a week out. She laid following her first post-hibernation shed. Most of my other snakes don't breed until their first post shed and lay after their second shed. I keep mine in a rack system with under the tub heat. 75 at the cool end and 82 at the warm end.