Aggressive thrashing when paired

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Usually I wholesale them (that requires quantity) or they are free to good home.

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Thanks, that'll probably be a last resort of mine i think. I had for 10 years already might as well continue. He was my first pet in the first place so I donmt see myself getting rid of him xD

If you really want to keep him, then call him your "handle animal" so when your friends come over and want to play with your snakes, you can bring him out and he can chill with them and you don't have to worry about your breeding animals deciding not to breed because they were handled over-much recently.

Hey, normal males are good for proving out multi-gene or dinker females :) Just because she's a he doesn't make him any less good for breeding - maybe just pick a different partner. X)

I believe every snake keeper should have a normal in their collection. Either male or female out of respect for the species. Normals are what all these morphs evolved from. I have a normal female and she's not going anywhere.

Nothing wrong with having a normal.
There's a lot you can do with one.
Nice animal to show to people or to get kids interested in our hobby by introducing them to a nice calm snake. To teach people what can come from a normal by showing a morph next to a normal
Or as said proving out dinkers

So we put the black widow with a confirmed female overnight and the first day went by alright. We checked back the next day and the male was "gnawing" her back. Just sort of opening his mouth, putting it on her and removing it. It wasn't a defensive strike, they were both resting relatively still next to each other. Is this a sign of breeding? Should I be concerned? I'm separating them for now in case it was putting the female at risk.

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Originally Posted by Seven-Thirty

So we put the black widow with a confirmed female overnight and the first day went by alright. We checked back the next day and the male was "gnawing" her back. Just sort of opening his mouth, putting it on her and removing it. It wasn't a defensive strike, they were both resting relatively still next to each other. Is this a sign of breeding? Should I be concerned? I'm separating them for now in case it was putting the female at risk.

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Nine years of breeding ball pythons and I've never seen that.

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Originally Posted by Dave Green

Nine years of breeding ball pythons and I've never seen that.

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Dang. D:

The only reason I noticed it was because I have them in a clear tub and check on them every once in a while.

If I were to describe what the black widow male was doing, it looks like he was yawning except putting his mouth over the body of the female. It did not look like a feeding or aggressive type of bite in any case.

Could it be that the female is just simply rejecting the male and he's just fed up?