Females trying to lock?

I have 2 normal females both breeding size 1300 grams and around 2300 grams.. and a male bumblebee i just picked up.. untill i can buy a rack system i have them together in a 40 breeder.. anyways the two larger females appear to be trying to lock. but both are deff females. should i remove one of the females and just keep my male with her or do people sometimes keep 2 females with one male? sorry new to this.. what do you think i should do? thanks.
mike:colbert:

Well since you have them together in 1 tank, I guess the QT process went out the window :confused:, you need to separate them into their own enclosures, and pray the new snake that you brought in is healthy, and that you haven't exposed them to anything.

Hi,

Pray like heck you go lucky and none of them have a transmittable disease or mites.

When you say the two trying to lock are deff females can I ask how you checked/ found out?

And, even for animals you have had for a while one snake per enclosure really does work out better for the animals. I know it is only temporary till you buy a rack but you completely bypassed any sensible quarantine and, to be honest, should have bought the rack before the other snakes.

It's a pain and it can be frustrating but it really will save you a lot of heartache as your collection grows. And you need to try and get a quarantine area with either a rack or a viv in a seperate room if you can - I use 90 days as a QT period but 30 is the absolute minimum.

**edit** beaten to it egad!**end edit**

dr del

Do you know how to probe and or pop so you know for a fact the two females are truly females or are you taking others word for it?

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untill i can buy a rack system i have them together in a 40 breeder

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This should say...
"I want to pick up more snakes what should I do before getting them?" :rolleye2:

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Originally Posted by llovelace

Well since you have them together in 1 tank, I guess the QT process went out the window :confused:, you need to separate them into their own enclosures, and pray the new snake that you brought in is healthy, and that you haven't exposed them to anything.

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These were purchased from the same vendor I am waiting on a rack system to be ordered had no choice.

I'm glad before I really got into this I had the proper space and funds before I started to attempt to house 3+ snakes...

I understand the hobby is very addicting but everyone needs to have the switch in there head that says omg I can get a deal on so and so then they do it. But you need to think one more mouth to feed one more possibly snake that will need to go to the vet... I set aside strictly 500$ for vet/housing equipment when I decided to expand. I never let the funds get below 300 I dont care if I'm dying for something new.

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Originally Posted by Caban

These were purchased from the same vendor I am waiting on a rack system to be ordered had no choice.

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90% of the time if you pay up front or half the breeder would have held them for you

The snakes all came from the same person just two different dates that are kept together I had not planned on purchasing these 3 at the show and went and bought a 40 breeder untill my rack comes in I tried to purchase a rack at the show and had no luck so I understand I should have seperate etc and qt them but however I got the deal and couldn't pass it up. As far as them both being females yes I seen thm both get popped and the larger female is the one trying to lock with the other female she is obviously not locked and succesful she is just showing sings of trying to breed. The male is a lot smaller than she is and I'm buying another tank after work to house him in as I didn't expect this reaction right away.

I never said money was an issue and I cannot afford a rack system I simply said they did not have the rack system I want at the show so now I have to order one.

If I were you I would probe them or have them probed. An adult male can be very hard to pop and maybe he just couldn't get it to pop but it is indeed a male. If you probe them on both sides it should be definite if its male or female. If they are both females I don't see what it would hurt to leave them together until your rack comes in. I would feed them in separate enclosures to avoid any problems there.

If money is not an issue, buying two tubs and heat mats for them would be the best thing to do since you haven't ordered the racks yet.

As for the 'females' locking, I'm betting one is a male.

Good idea on the tubs its a quick fix then I could use them for the rack anyway. Good advice. I will stop after work and pick them up. Are females every really the agresser in breeding or typicaly just the males? I have bought 6 snakes from the guy I would hope he didn't screw me over on a normal female and it end up being a male

I've yet to see a female try to hook another female up but have seen males try to hook up with other males and females :P

Well I placed a quick phone call and its possible he grabbed the wrong bag and I have a male 100% het albino in there Lovely and I'm stuck at work. I knew it seemed weird in my head that a female would act that way. Hopefully she doesn't take.. :rage:

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Originally Posted by Caban

its possible he grabbed the wrong bag and I have a male 100% het albino in there

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That would make sense but what a drag.
It definitely pays to learn how to pop and probe so you don't have to rely on someone's word.
Maybe someone local will help you learn?

Ive been out of the hobby for so long im not sure of anyone around me who can pop or probe any more and i cant find my probe set from when i used to have milk snakes.. closest big cities to youngstown are clev or pitt and thats an hour and a half either way.. no real reptile stores here either all just chain stores with no one who knows much of anything let alone sell probe kits or else i would just probe them and be done with it..

You can buy a probe kit on ebay or other online store and have it shipped to you.

i actually remembered my ex fiancée used to do nails and they had this thing that was like a probe with a ball on the end and had two diff sizes and is stainless steel .. so i went to the beauty store purchased one sterilized it (even tho brand new and in a package) bought some Vaseline and probed them.. bumblebee is a male for sure.. and the other two seem to be females.. large one still acts like amale and is trying to breed like crazy but the bumblebee i think is afraid of her honestly shes way way way bigger than he is.. im going to probe the females again tomorrow when i have time just to be sure again.. but im 99% sure that shes a female only went in about 4 to 5 scales and bee went in about 9 or so.. we shall see..

i also ordered a probe set as well.. so i can sex my smaller snakes once the set comes in.. but i needed to know what was going on asap.. i did make sure that the "probe" i used was made of stainless and safe before use.. and even asked the vet.

5 is pretty deep for a female. Did you probe both sides?

i probed her this morning.. (gave her a rest from playin around with her.) i got resistance at 4 scales deep. last time i counted the scales i wasnt at the base of the cloaca.. She seems to be a she.. just a very active female who wants to court whoever comes in contact with her .. but my bee wants nothing to do with her. i know he was bred alot this season so either hes just done or afraid of her size possibly. i dont know.. i wish i had a male ready to go besides him bc she is deff wanting to breed... if this weather would break it would make it alot easier to go rack shopping..

Well i take that back.. i got my prob kit in the mail today and took off work.. Looks like the large female is actually a male i went 7 scales and stopped... and is a t positive het male.. which does me no good since i dont have a t positive female.. So im doing the right thing and i called the vendor back because im sure he wants his t positive male back.. (crazy i know but honestly i have to do whats right) so he has my female that i actually purchased and hopefully will run something through to her to help me out..

Thats sucks, hopefully whoever you purchased it from will swap out for you, I found out that a huge female that I've had for almost 3 years is actually a male :rage:, hope everything works out for you :)

I would also get an incubator set up just in case. It only takes once, and a few min. :)

I have an aggressive female as well. She's about 2000 g's, and once whacked my male in the head. Yeah, didn't turn out so well. He spent the rest of the three days on the opposite side of the tub.

Good luck with them!

I kinda figured she was a Male. it happens thats why I pop / probe all of mine asap to avoid this.

i called him and asked him since i have his snake and he has mine and i had plans to breed to the bee if he would run some males through her since i wont get her back for about a month.. so hes going to run a spinner to her for me.. so i guess i still kinda luck out in this deal.

ouch that sucks.. 3 years later you found out? :( sorry to hear that..


ya i have been looking at incubators but everyone seems to prefer the cheap ones from like tractor supply from what i read for hatching chicks and they are like 40-50 bucks.. any thoughts on this? i have a mini redbull fridge i would like to convert one day... too :)

lets just say i will be taking a probe kit with me to every show from this point forward... and i will probe them myself ...

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Originally Posted by Caban

i called him and asked him since i have his snake and he has mine and i had plans to breed to the bee if he would run some males through her since i wont get her back for about a month.. so hes going to run a spinner to her for me.. so i guess i still kinda luck out in this deal.

ouch that sucks.. 3 years later you found out? :( sorry to hear that..


ya i have been looking at incubators but everyone seems to prefer the cheap ones from like tractor supply from what i read for hatching chicks and they are like 40-50 bucks.. any thoughts on this? i have a mini redbull fridge i would like to convert one day... too :)

lets just say i will be taking a probe kit with me to every show from this point forward... and i will probe them myself ...

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No no. I would not use the Tractor Supply model. Ex-Employee, but i'll spare you my rants about those incubators. Try the Hovabator: http://www.bigappleherp.com/Hovabator-Incubators. Or something similar. Make sure it's a reptile incubator. They are more consistant with temps :)

Thanks.. i was debating on that one the hovabator.. they have two models tho.. which one the turbo fan or no turbo fan?


Well i went to check on the female who has been alone ever since my suspicion that the other female was a male.. and she is going into shed.... :( hope she didnt take to that male.. hes a 100% het T positive caramel albino.. a whole bunch of possible hets does me no good.. do you think i should put my bee in with her? now it makes sense why the bee has been stressed out as well because he was in with the other male instead of a female..

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Originally Posted by Caban

Thanks.. i was debating on that one the hovabator.. they have two models tho.. which one the turbo fan or no turbo fan?


Well i went to check on the female who has been alone ever since my suspicion that the other female was a male.. and she is going into shed.... :( hope she didnt take to that male.. hes a 100% het T positive caramel albino.. a whole bunch of possible hets does me no good.. do you think i should put my bee in with her? now it makes sense why the bee has been stressed out as well because he was in with the other male instead of a female..

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Well, I would wait until after she sheds, and maybe try to give her a meal before. If she's in a new place, she should get about a week to settle in. Then try all you want. She could retain sperm from both males. I even think there was an instance with an egg that had traits from two males. I could be wrong though, and only heard it once. But, if you do happen to end up with some hets, and they prove out, having some caramels come out of a bad deal isn't a really bad thing. ;)

On a side note, if you purchase a new snake (no matter where it came from). Always quarantine. Especially from a show. The breeder might have healthy babies, but they can pick anything up from a show. I've heard horror stories about mites. And, the to and from places were both clean.

All of my snakes came from the same vendor.. so i didnt really think to much about it since they have been together.. but i have since setup tubs with heat pads etc for this reason and am up and running as suggested.

true if they prove out to be caramel albino hets.. problems is im not going to try and prove them out.. i rather buy a pair of 100% hets and take the easy way out haha.. And i would much rather have the bee and her produce a clutch.. especially if i get that spinner clutch out of my other female then i can have a nice group to raise up for breeding later on.. thanks for all the info


but do you prefer the turbo fan or the thermal air flow model?

Um. Either one would probably work. If it were bigger, you would have to have a fan to distribute heat evenly. But, i've never used them, so I can't speak from experience. I would probably get the fanned one. Just to be safe. You would think if you ended up with a lot of eggs, and had the bator pretty full, the heat would distribute better with the fan rather than thermal air. But, I can't speak from experience.

Either way, I would plug it in as soon as you get it. Let it run for a week or two to test out temps. And, when you get an ovy, plug it back in right away.