Quote Originally Posted by Steven Bol View Post
Mating behaviour just prior to the time that the female will produce young is very normal, at least that is my observaton over the past 20 years. I see it as a sign that the young will come pretty soon.

And the biological reason for this? I guess in nature the young are often born early fall, and fall matings are quite normal. The males will also copulate before hibernation..

Kind regards from the Netherlands,

Steven Bol

Understood, but this has nearly always happened for me with my concinnus, over many years. And it doesn't seem to matter if the female is gravid. It happens at shed time anyway, year 'round.(except for brumating time of course)

Also, any concinnus I've ever had, never had fall matings and based on observations in the wild they don't do it there either. I'm sure there are exceptions, it's just that 99% of females found in July or August are gravid and giving birth and mating can observed in April or May but never any other time of year. Not so with ordinoides. The fall breeding at the den sites is just as vigorous and just as much a spectacle as the spring matings and babies are born from spring to late summer.

But yeah, I usually separate males from gravid females when the day of birthing is near. Dang males try to mate with the females while they are trying to give birth. I noticed that pigs do that too and hogs will trample the babies to get to the sows!