A Very Interesting Pheromone Experience!

[Jack Neary]

Hi Gang!
I want to share this very cool breeding experience I was fortianate to witness....
While I was in my basement on Wednesday night cleaning my Garter vivariums with new Carefesh and replacing water bowls, etc.... I happened to noticed one of my male Puget's actively passioniately pursuing one of my Female Puget's around their viv for a little Garter loving and I believe the copulation (could not verify the actual copulation as the back-end of both Puget's bodies was in their hollow artifical snake cave. ^%$#@!) But the male seemed to be in strong knot, intertwined with the female Puget (You get the idea...)
I had just started to clean one of my vivariums that house one of my 2 pairs of my male and female Puget's when I decided I should place the one pair temporarily in the other viv with my other male and female Puget pair so I could thoroughly clean their viv without stressing them out too bad.
This is where it gets cool!!!
Upon placing the other male and female Puget pair in the viv with the first hot-to-trot male and female mating pair, I noticed that, very quickly, the second male started following the 2nd female around the perimeter of their temporary viv tank, while the other pair was hopfully successfully mating!
This quickly caught my attention, as I have had these 2 pairs of adult Puget's for almost 9 months without ever seeing any signs of courtship between any of the 2 pairs. I was disappointed as I had hoped they would have mated earlier this spring (even though I did not brumate both pairs this winter... Oh, well.... *^%$#!
Anyway I was totally captivated by this new strange, side-to-side head-jerking, body behavior, which I had NEVER witnessed before! I mean my second male all of a sudden displayed body and head movements I just had never seen, even though I thought I seen all of the strange head jerk movements Garters can make when they are about to eat or chase moving prey!
Finally, my 2nd male Puget caught up to the 2nd female, as she constantly circled the perimeter of their new viv tank in her attempts to get away, she then lifted her tail and the mating started along with my other Puget pair that had started mating just minutes earlier!
I had 2 pair of Puget's mating at the same time, in the same Viv! WOW!
This really fascinated me as I thought could this just be coincidence? I was really puzzled? Is mating behaviour contagious?
Still puzzled, I called our resident expert, Scott Felzer, for his opinion and expanation...
Scott explaned that the first female was producing and emitting a pheromone scent, which, when I placed the second Puget pair in the viv with the first mating pair the second male Puget picked up that pheromone scent from the 1st female and caused the 2nd male to initiate mating behavior between him and the 2nd female.
I just thought this was pretty darn cool!
I am wondering, if I were place another pair of my male and female Concinnus's or Eastern's, would that pheromone also trigger mating behaviour between other pair of my garter's? Has anyone else experienced this behaviour by your other make/female Garter's pair that are near proxsimity of another Garter pair of mating? Has anyone tried this as a method to induce mating between another pair of Garter's???
I'm sorry if perhaps has been seen by many of you, but I just feel that I saw a very unique experience I was VERY lucky to witness...
Please let me know your thoughts or your similar experiences!
Regards,
Jack

[Stefan-A]

Interesting.

Has anyone else experienced this behaviour by your other make/female Garter's pair that are near proxsimity of another Garter pair of mating?

Not personally, but a simple change of scenery or cleaning of the enclosure used to get my male parietalis going. I've heard more than once about snakes mating during transportation.

I am wondering, if I were place another pair of my male and female Concinnus's or Eastern's, would that pheromone also trigger mating behaviour between other pair of my garter's?

Interesting question. I wouldn't expect other sympatric (sub)species to react the same way, but it's worth a shot.

[guidofatherof5]

Don't have anything of substance to add to the thread, I'm just glad you were there to witness the event and share it with the forum. Thanks for posting.

[snakeman]

Good to hear somebody is going to be producing pugets.I know a lot of people bought them .But it does not seem like anybody is breeding them.

[Snake lover 3-25]

very neat! thanks for sharing!

[count dewclaw]

Interesting observations, hopefully they will produce some young pugets for you.

Good to hear somebody is going to be producing pugets.I know a lot of people bought them .But it does not seem like anybody is breeding them.

I'm pretty sure my puget female is gravid, I'm just waiting......

[Thamnophis Man]

That is one that is next on my list of wants! If anybody is selling Pugets, let me know.

[gregmonsta]

Good stuff cheers for sharing.

[jitami]

Very cool observation Jack!