Breeding introductions - a cautionary tale

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pythonmum

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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.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 ;)).
  4. 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.
 
Its my experience with Albinos that a lot (not all) of them (male & female) DON'T probe to conventional depths and l have probed quite a few that were incorrectly determined when young and after all its not a perfect science but a good reason to look for secondary indicators to support your initial findings solar 17
 
Its my experience with Albinos that a lot (not all) of them (male & female) DON'T probe to conventional depths and l have probed quite a few that were incorrectly determined when young and after all its not a perfect science but a good reason to look for secondary indicators to support your initial findings solar 17
I think this is true for any snake. I was sure of my animals because of successful breeding. As for the other, we certainly had a secondary indicator today!
 
I feel really stupid that i didnt get her re probed, it never occurred to me since the other snake was confirmed as male in the autopsy and they were a breeding pair that had been living together.

I would have felt so terrible if that had turned ugly, im just so glad we were patiently waiting and could intervene so quickly.

I must say though, Ras reaction to a male in his territory was awesome to see, ive seen it on vids, but seeing that first hand was amazing!!
 
I've had a similar experience where it pays off to watch the introduction. I have a female spotted who attacks before she thinks. I've introduced my male before with no issues however on one occasion she attacked him before realising he was another python. Fortunately he's a placid thing and didn't attack back so I was able to get her off then they were on their merry way. But yes, all introductions should be monitored, regardless if they're guaranteed male and female.
 
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