pythonmum
Very Well-Known Member
Chris1 and I had a very interesting snake breeding experience this afternoon which serves as a caution to all keepers wanting to introduce animals.
Over a year ago Chris1 bought a pair of adult White Phoenix albinos. They had been housed together before she got them, but (like most herp keepers) she separated the pair. A short time later, the male died of cancer (confirmed on expert necropsy as cancer and not the many options of infectious disease). She bought a young male, but at 18 months he is not of breeding size, while the White Phoenix female is in prime condition and ready to go at 2.5 kg.
We talked it over and did a lot of careful thinking about quarantine before deciding that my proven male would stand as stud to her female. This afternoon was the big date. We introduced her snake into the bottom part of the enclosure, while my male was in the top part (accessed by a hole). They both sat around for a while until my male began to scent a bit more. He then moved quickly through his hole into the main enclosure and immediately twined around the White Phoenix. We sprang into action and separated the snakes as they were twining necks and trying to slam each other. We were relieved that the fight just involved wrapping and thrashing, with no strikes and bites to the snakes or to us.
There are a number of lessons from this.
I hope this serves as a caution to those wanting to house animals together. Chris1 is also very glad she didn't put her small male with the 'female', as the much smaller male might have fared much worse.
Over a year ago Chris1 bought a pair of adult White Phoenix albinos. They had been housed together before she got them, but (like most herp keepers) she separated the pair. A short time later, the male died of cancer (confirmed on expert necropsy as cancer and not the many options of infectious disease). She bought a young male, but at 18 months he is not of breeding size, while the White Phoenix female is in prime condition and ready to go at 2.5 kg.
We talked it over and did a lot of careful thinking about quarantine before deciding that my proven male would stand as stud to her female. This afternoon was the big date. We introduced her snake into the bottom part of the enclosure, while my male was in the top part (accessed by a hole). They both sat around for a while until my male began to scent a bit more. He then moved quickly through his hole into the main enclosure and immediately twined around the White Phoenix. We sprang into action and separated the snakes as they were twining necks and trying to slam each other. We were relieved that the fight just involved wrapping and thrashing, with no strikes and bites to the snakes or to us.
There are a number of lessons from this.
- The White Phoenix 'female' is a male. The previous owner said it was sexed as female, sheds indicated female, but this is not the case! It will be probed again.
- Males may live together for a while without conflict, as the deceased snake was confirmed as male on necropsy (as well as having cancer confirmed). However, just because they don't fight, it doesn't mean they might not in the future.
- My boy can fight! Although both snakes are very placid albinos, they certainly have normal instincts. After a brief cooling off period I put my female in the enclosure and we watched totally different meeting behaviour (which is still going on
). - You must always watch closely when introducing animals. If we had just put in the new snake and gone upstairs for a coffee after a few minutes, both snakes could have been seriously injured.
I hope this serves as a caution to those wanting to house animals together. Chris1 is also very glad she didn't put her small male with the 'female', as the much smaller male might have fared much worse.
