General Breeding Questions

[d_virginiana]

So my female Flame, Harley, is going to be two years old this May. I'm curious if that would be old enough to let her breed? You can look at her and tell she's probably still got some growing to do, but she's at a size now like... Maybe comparable to a small male (still slightly smaller than Houdini, but then again he's on the upper end of the male size range).

Another question is how likely would I be to get a successful mating out of snakes that haven't brumated? I'm not dead-set on having squiggles this year so I didn't brumate anyone. If there's a decent chance of mating without brumation I may be on the lookout for adult males I think would be good matches for Harley.
I'm sure Sithis would love to give it a try, but right now she's more likely to look at him as a snack than as a cute boy. :p

[guidofatherof5]

2 years as a rule is a good age to start breeding. I've found that brumation enhances breeding but isn't dependent on it. I have plenty of snakes that breed without brumation. If the female is ready and sending out the right messages and the male is ready ,willing and able things should go good.

[thamneil]

I'll second Steve! Garters are usually go to go by the second year. What would you be breeding her to?

[d_virginiana]

She'll probably be even larger by the time I'd actually be breeding her as well. If the way she acts around Houdini on their 'playdates' is any indication, she is definitely ready to go :p

Well, my baby albino (starting to think he might ought to be classified as ery/albino or something. Crazy amounts of red starting to show up on that little guy) is going to eventually be her partner but he's too young right now. I'm thinking anything that would either compliment and enhance her reds, or anything that wouldn't interfere with them... So erythristic, flame, or albino (she's 66% poss het) would be the morphs I'd be looking for to mate with her.

[Greg'sGarters]

Brumation encourages the development of ova in females and the development of healthier sperm in males (plus it gets them in the mood). While there have been cases of them breeding without brumation, and even cases of them producing healthy litters without brumation, you are about 20 times more likely to produce a larger healthier litter when the snakes have been properly brumated.

[guidofatherof5]

Brumation encourages the development of ova in females and the development of healthier sperm in males (plus it gets them in the mood). While there have been cases of them breeding without brumation, and even cases of them producing healthy litters without brumation, you are about 20 times more likely to produce a larger healthier litter when the snakes have been properly brumated.


Would you please reference this 20% study.

[Greg'sGarters]

You are about 20 times more likely to produce a larger healthier litter when the snakes have been properly brumated.

Saying 20 times is just my opinion.

[d_virginiana]

Hm... I would question that simply because Florida has a healthy garter population. In the more southerly parts it stays in the low to mid 70's all winter. Of course, idk much about how the snakes in that locale act. Those temps might be enough to cause them to go into brumation.


(plus it gets them in the mood).

I guess should never brumate mine unless I want them to start courting cage decorations then :rolleyes: Harley and Houdini start trying to lock up after about 45 seconds together. Of course, it's kind of the equivalent of setting up a 40 year old virgin on a blind date (HA!) with a college student on spring break, so it's not that surprising.

[Greg'sGarters]

Since this is a flame, I am assuming that we are talking about an eastern, Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis. And please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that in the majority of the Eastern's range, it gets down to brumating temperatures. So is it NECESSARY? No but it sure does help.

[d_virginiana]

Since this is a flame, I am assuming that we are talking about an eastern, Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis. And please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that in the majority of the Eastern's range, it gets down to brumating temperatures. So is it NECESSARY? No but it sure does help.

Yes, all of my babies are Easterns. My point was that if not brumating caused a 20X reduction in litter survival/size then Florida would not have the nice healthy garter population that it does. I'm not saying brumation is not conducive to mating; it certainly is. It's just that I have not heard anything about it causing drastically increased production of ova and sperm, nor have I heard of a 20X increase in litter productivity anywhere else.
If there is evidence for those things I would be interested to read it/hear the experiences. Because saying those things is very different from just saying that brumation increases the likelihood of successful mating.

[Greg'sGarters]

Yes, all of my babies are Easterns. My point was that if not brumating caused a 20X reduction in litter survival/size then Florida would not have the nice healthy garter population that it does. I'm not saying brumation is not conducive to mating; it certainly is. It's just that I have not heard anything about it causing drastically increased production of ova and sperm, nor have I heard of a 20X increase in litter productivity anywhere else.
If there is evidence for those things I would be interested to read it/hear the experiences. Because saying those things is very different from just saying that brumation increases the likelihood of successful mating.

That was a mistake, I meant that you would just have a greater chance if you did indeed brumate.

[d_virginiana]

Yeah, I'm not super concerned about having a litter this year. Like, if I did that would be nice, but if I didn't I wouldn't be upset about it. Maybe if I find a good looking male at a decent price I'll put them together and see what happens. :)

[ConcinusMan]

Well, I don't have anything conclusive, but when I get a mating of a non-brumated female she usually just has a few babies. Brumated, the litters seem to be much bigger. Not brumating the males does seem to result in more unfertilized eggs. That's just what I've experienced. It's nothing really conclusive.

[Invisible Snake]

Didn't want to start a new thread so I'm going to post my question here..

Do females in breeding mode wag their tails?

[guidofatherof5]

Yes. That means "Hello big boy":D

I can't say I've ever seen any of that kind of behavior from any of my females.

[Invisible Snake]

Kool, thanks for the info Steve!

[d_virginiana]

My easily annoyed female sometimes thrashes her tail at Houdini when he won't leave her alone and she's done being social :rolleyes:
But yeah, haven't noticed her doing it in a friendly way lol

[ConcinusMan]

Tail waving I've seen is usually annoyance. When the female is receptive to the male's advances, she lifts her tail as if she's pooping.