How frequently do you pair females?

There's always a lot of talk about how frequently to pair a male with various females and how much time he needs off, but I'm wondering how frequently do you try and pair your females with a male?

I put the males in on a 2 day schedual, 2 days with a female and 2 days off, some people do 3 days on and 3 days off. :O

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Originally Posted by hondo1967

I put the males in on a 2 day schedual, 2 days with a female and 2 days off, some people do 3 days on and 3 days off. :O

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Is this with one female or with multiple females? i.e. you pair him with Female 1 for two days, give him two off. Then pair him with female 2 for two days, give him two off, etc. My question is how long until female 1 would be paired again? Or do you do two on two off with the same female over and over again?

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Originally Posted by blueapplepaste

Is this with one female or with multiple females? i.e. you pair him with Female 1 for two days, give him two off. Then pair him with female 2 for two days, give him two off, etc. My question is how long until female 1 would be paired again? Or do you do two on two off with the same female over and over again?

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Yep, thats what i do but im not looking to breed a ton of animals, just looking for certain morphs, I try not to burn out the males, theres good info on the subject at 8ball adam has a whole rundown on the breeding cycle:banana:

I put my male in with a girl for 2 days, then switch him to another girl for another 2 days. He gets put back in his own bin the morning of feeding day for him, and then he gets the day after that off to digest--then it's back with the girls. If he doesn't eat, he still gets those 2 days off, once a week.

At least once, maybe twice during the season, he gets a week off.

Size of the male matters, too--a young male that starts to look too skinny or is off feed for too long should probably get a warm-up and sit out the rest of the season--don't want him to lose too much weight.

It really depends what's going on when I pair them up ... is the male courting, is there a lock, are they laying at opposite ends of the cage, etc.

How often pairing occur around here depends on what the animals are doing.

It only takes once lock for a female to become gravid ... for piece of mind, I like to see a bunch ... but there's no sense on just blindly running a male in with a female over and over and over again if they are either not doing anything or if they lock every time you pair them up.

Hope this helps.

-adam

I'll throw my males in with a female at least twice a month. Just one say, if they don't lock he is pulled out and tried again later in the month.

Just one DAY.

Dang I hate this Mac. Can't quit making typing errors.

I like to give my males a longer rest period than WWP. I put the male in with a female for 3 days. Then four days rest, with feed on the first of the four days. Then to the next female. If he starts to refuse feed, he comes out of the rotation for longer rest.

Only two days of rest to every four days of breeding seems like the male isn't getting a lot of rest.

Each female will be with the male for a total of six days a month (or a rotation every other week) until ovulation.

That's how I did it last year and will do it this year.

I also pay attention to who's doing what--a female that is locking with males will get the male put back with her frequently. If there's no locking going on from the female, but the male is going with other girls, then after a few tries, I'll wait until she sheds and try again then.

If the boy's not locking with any girls, he gets 3 days off before trying again--no breeding activity that night, then he's back in his bin for another 3 days.

How much time off a female gets depends on how many females the male I'm using for her is seeing--but she gets at least two days off per week to eat and digest.

So seems to be twice a month (I'm assuming with locks) is a good place to aim. Thanks for the help everyone!

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

a female that is locking with males will get the male put back with her frequently.

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Just for a different perspective, I do just the opposite in that case ... since it only takes a single lock for a female to become gravid, "good breeders" see the males less often ... that way I'm not (in my very humble and small opinion) burning the male out by breeding a girl that is very receptive and I can focus the males efforts on girls that are slower to come around.

It's also important to be able to recognize "courting" but not copulating vs. no interest at all. The difference between those behaviors help me key in to how often a female will see a male as well or whether I have to resort to "other means" to get the female to become receptive.

Lastly, being able to develop solid palpation skills (or investing in an ultra sound) is another great way of knowing how often a male should be paired with a given female (or more important, when he no longer needs to be paired with a given female).

The good news is that there are many many ways to breed these animals and be successful ... the way I do things is just what works for me, and it works very very well. :D Super kudos to everyone else out there figuring out what does and doesn't work for them ... that's 1/2 the fun of doing this stuff!!! :banana:

-adam

I totally agee Adam! My male pastel was in with a female and he was locked up with her for the entire 3 days.

I took him out put him in his bin and ate no problem. Since he was locked up everytime I looked he'll go in with a different female.

He'll be back in with her but like Adam said no sense in tiring him out on a girl that may already be good to go!

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

It's also important to be able to recognize "courting" but not copulating vs. no interest at all. The difference between those behaviors help me key in to how often a female will see a male as well or whether I have to resort to "other means" to get the female to become receptive.

-adam

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Adam,

Maybe this is a dumb question, but what signs do you classify as courting and what signs do you believe is no interest at all?

Thanks!

Well, I'm not Adam, but courting is the actions that lead up to lockup.

The tickling (Male runs his spurs up and down the female), the close call (Male is positioning himself close to the cloaca, but not locked) and snuggling are some of the big ones in my opinion...

Adam can come up with more, I'm sure :)

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Just for a different perspective, I do just the opposite in that case ... since it only takes a single lock for a female to become gravid, "good breeders" see the males less often ... that way I'm not (in my very humble and small opinion) burning the male out by breeding a girl that is very receptive and I can focus the males efforts on girls that are slower to come around.

It's also important to be able to recognize "courting" but not copulating vs. no interest at all. The difference between those behaviors help me key in to how often a female will see a male as well or whether I have to resort to "other means" to get the female to become receptive.

Lastly, being able to develop solid palpation skills (or investing in an ultra sound) is another great way of knowing how often a male should be paired with a given female (or more important, when he no longer needs to be paired with a given female).

The good news is that there are many many ways to breed these animals and be successful ... the way I do things is just what works for me, and it works very very well. :D Super kudos to everyone else out there figuring out what does and doesn't work for them ... that's 1/2 the fun of doing this stuff!!! :banana:

-adam

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Great post Adam! I don't consider your opinion small. Always good to know what the pros are doing! :gj:

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Just for a different perspective, I do just the opposite in that case ... since it only takes a single lock for a female to become gravid, "good breeders" see the males less often ... that way I'm not (in my very humble and small opinion) burning the male out by breeding a girl that is very receptive and I can focus the males efforts on girls that are slower to come around.

It's also important to be able to recognize "courting" but not copulating vs. no interest at all. The difference between those behaviors help me key in to how often a female will see a male as well or whether I have to resort to "other means" to get the female to become receptive.

Lastly, being able to develop solid palpation skills (or investing in an ultra sound) is another great way of knowing how often a male should be paired with a given female (or more important, when he no longer needs to be paired with a given female).

The good news is that there are many many ways to breed these animals and be successful ... the way I do things is just what works for me, and it works very very well. :D Super kudos to everyone else out there figuring out what does and doesn't work for them ... that's 1/2 the fun of doing this stuff!!! :banana:

-adam

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Thanks for the advice! It's the first time they're breeding for me, so I'm not sure what kind of breeders they'll be. Does it hurt to keep pairing them even if there are regular locks?

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Originally Posted by LadyOhh

Well, I'm not Adam

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Awww foo-ey ... I'm so fugly that in order to help my self esteem I've been telling people that I'm secretly a hottie from the West Coast with killer animals ... thanks for blowing my cover!!! :rolleye2:

Great post though! :D

-adam

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Originally Posted by blueapplepaste

Thanks for the advice! It's the first time they're breeding for me, so I'm not sure what kind of breeders they'll be. Does it hurt to keep pairing them even if there are regular locks?

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Won't hurt a thing ... just watch your male ... make sure he stays healthy and eating well and you'll be fine! :D

-adam

What I did my first season was take like 3 good pictures of each snake that's breeding and keep them on my comp during the whole breeding season. That way I can refer to them throughout the season to see the effects of the breeding season (it's hard to notice by eye when your snake is losing weight very slowly over the 6 month long breeding season). That along with weighing them helps me see how much "fat" they're losing as opposed to growing or using the fat to build eggs...Anyone eating throughout the season in my house gets a 4 days on 4 days off schedule...if they stop eating they get something like 2 weeks off and if they still don't eat, but they haven't lost they're "plump"appearance or significant weight, I'll give them another shot at a lady...To me it's all about the snake's fat reserves...if they're dwindling..he's DONE...if he stays nice and fat he gets to breed...But the pics helped alot to see that my male mojave was losing alot of fat even though the scale said he had gained a little that first year and I pulled him...Still here today...and thats what's important! Not to mention the job was already done and I had 3 mojaves and 2 normals that spring..Good luck! :gj:

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Originally Posted by LadyOhh

Well, I'm not Adam, but courting is the actions that lead up to lockup.

The tickling (Male runs his spurs up and down the female), the close call (Male is positioning himself close to the cloaca, but not locked) and snuggling are some of the big ones in my opinion...

Adam can come up with more, I'm sure :)

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That sounds about what we thought, but were not 100% sure. Thanks!