BP Breeders - Do you keep your mature males and females in the same room?

Since I started breeding BP’s a couple years ago every October / November my males begin their 6-7 month fast. I understand this is not unheard of, even normal for the breeding season. What I’m wondering though is what triggers this? I don’t bother doing a night drop for the males, yet they still seem to know when it’s breeding season. Could it be pheromones/scents from the female in the air or maybe just the changing natural light cycle?

I'm debating on moving my mature male BP's out of the same room as the females to see if I can get some extra meals in the males. I don’t like seeing these guys, especially the ones who don’t have partners up to weight yet fasting for so long.

For you other BP breeders, do you keep your mature males and females in the same room year round? Do you think separating them could increase the odds of getting in a few extra meals during the breeding season?

I keep all of mine in the same room...My breeder males never go off feed.

Keep all of mine in the same room and don't have males going 6-7 months off food. At most I have 2 or three males that only miss 4-6 meals toward the end of breeding season.

Its the want to or act of breeding that causes males to go off food. Moving a sexually mature male isn't going to do anything because once you start pairing them up they are breeding or they want to.

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Originally Posted by coldbloodaddict

I keep all of mine in the same room...My breeder males never go off feed.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Keep all of mine in the same room and don't have males going 6-7 months off food. At most I have 2 or three males that only miss 4-6 meals toward the end of breeding season.

Its the want to or act of breeding that causes males to go off food. Moving a sexually mature male isn't going to do anything because once you start pairing them up they are breeding or they want to.

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I understand once I start putting them in with the females they are firmly in breeding mode. What freaks me out though is every year before they are even introduced in with the females at either the end of October or the beginning of November both my breeder males go off feed, like somethings told them it’s time to breed.

Right now during the summer they are power feeding mode. Since the beginning of June they have been taking 2 borderline small/medium rats a week, if things go the same as last year they will continue strong this way until one week in October or November where they will go completely off feed until sometime in spring. I thought perhaps it was the scent of the females that was causing this but based on what I’ve heard so far it would seem that’s not the case.

Also it seems this long breeding fast is more uncommon than I thought.

IMO they are going off food because you are feeding them too much and too big of a meal...I never power feed males...I hate big breeder males...Lean and mean get the job done for me!

Ditto here on liking lean males, of just about ANY species, for breeding.

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Originally Posted by coldbloodaddict

IMO they are going off food because you are feeding them too much and too big of a meal...I never power feed males...I hate big breeder males...Lean and mean get the job done for me!

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Ditto .. some of my best breeder are males that are 900 grams and under..you'd think they were big ole King snakes or something..

Lean and mean and little meals when they want them .

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Originally Posted by coldbloodaddict

IMO they are going off food because you are feeding them too much and too big of a meal...I never power feed males...I hate big breeder males...Lean and mean get the job done for me!

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I see what you are saying, but my guys don't get all that big. My Albino male 900g, my Lesser is 744g. Not skinny, but not obese. This power feeding cycle started after their first long winter/breeding fast. Once they finished in the spring they starting eating again with a very strong feeding response. This continues until fall when their feeding response goes from strong to non-existent.
They fasted and bred during this last winter and starting in May they started taking meals again, and again with a very strong feeding response. I’ve been offing extra rats to help gain some weight in anticipation for another breeding fast this upcoming fall. My goal isn’t for gigantic males.

6 months out of the year they have a strong feeding response, the other 6 months they have none. Since the start of the fast had been both times at the start of the normal BP breeding season I thought it was due to something triggering them into breeding mode.

But I see what you guys are saying, and especially since you guys are more experienced in BP breeding than myself I will take it to heart. Since both my breeder males have already gained back the weight they lost during their last breeding fast I will bump down their meals to a single rat a week and see if they continue to take food past their normal October/November wall.

The thing to remember is every snake is different and to pay attention to your snakes. I've got 1800 gram males that eat and breed and nothing phases them. Then I have animals that will eat off and on during breeding and they stay a little thin that's just them..

See what works for you and go with it.

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Originally Posted by coldbloodaddict

I keep all of mine in the same room...My breeder males never go off feed.

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Ditto!

I'm gonna chime in on this.

My biggest breeder male, a pastel at 1200 grams ate a small meal every other week all through the breeding season.

My two smallest breeding males ate an average of once a month maybe, sitting at 450 and 525 grams respectively.

My non breeding male at 650 grams, stopped eating completely.

I think it depends on the individual snake. I offered small meals to all my males, meaning most of the season they got adult mice instead of rats of any kind. Eating was pretty much hit and miss but I kept offering. I did find with the two smaller males offering food two days after I pulled them from the female encouraged eating to a degree.

Gale

My males also eat year round. They may miss a meal or two, but not much longer than that. They are housed in the same rack as the girls.

Just to add some more insight. I keep my breeder males in the same room as my females. However, I do breed some of the younger males from my other room (they are in an ARS hatchling rack). I find that animals from either room act the same.

As far as going off feed, I have had different experiences than most on here. My males do go off feed for about 6-7 months as a general rule. However, quite a few of my males will only eat 4 or 5 meals per year. These are animals that will breed 6-8 females a year and this does not affect them.

With that said, as Jon mentioned above, "athletic" males get the job done better. I strive to keep my males at the 900 gram range. This doesn't mean that I will unnaturally starve one that has genes that want to make him bigger, but I do drop the males back to a 1 meal / 21 day schedule starting at about 600 grams. This seems to work well for me.

I hope that helps,