Here's the problem . . .

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Posted by Drizzt80 on April 28, 2003 at 21:36:04:

In Reply to: Yes... posted by Serpwidgets on April 28, 2003 at 21:07:12:

I began this addictive foray into breeding last spring by putting together my male snow corn and an amel okeetee (was sold as a creamsicle, but researching, it's color intensity and pattern look exactly like SerpenCo's pictures of amel okeetees). They were successful, with 8 eggs and 100 percent hatch. Got 3 snows and 5 amels which would mean the amel is also het anery. Since then I have gone on a rampage of snake buying, and have 4 other adults of breeding size.
AFter a late brumation (started end of December), I brought them all out in late March, and have since waited for the shedding patterns, feeding, etc. Following the Love book to a T. The snow (who still hasn't eaten) and amel okeetee hooked up right away, and have successfully bred twice.
The other four snakes are a normal male (95% sure), a snow I thought was a female, and what I thought were a pair of amels. I had probed them last summer when I first got them. The amel I thought was a female shed right away out of brumation, within days, the other amel and snow have not yet shed since end of March. All ate right away, but as of Friday last they refused meals.
I've put the normal male with all three at one time or another over the past 2 weeks. He is ready and willing to go, jerking all over the place, exploring the other snake as well as the breeding cage etc. The other 3 have had virtually no response to 'him', and obviously no breeding has taken place. I've also put the amels together singly and the snow with the 'male' amel.
Since I've started getting confused on what each sex may be exactly, I reprobed the two amels, and now they both seem to probe as females. Some of my corns are obviously male or female by looking at the tales and their tapers, but these two amels are especially frustrating me. I also counted the scales on both amels and got 163 and 164 which is greater than the 'magic' 154.
I feel as though I'm going to end up using trial and error to find out if they'll breed (and therefore be 100% sure), but the question I think I need to ask at this point, is how long from brumation can I keep trying to get them to breed? I know there's not a magic time or number of days, but just a general time frame. I have been placing pairs together every other day. One attempt I am planning is putting the definite male snow (who has serviced the amel okeetee twice so far) with each of the others to see if the normal corn is just inexperienced and doesn't know what to do.
Any other suggestions?

D80

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Here's the problem . . . Serpwidgets 04/29/03 (0)