First time male wont lock; Good idea to let another male 'fight' him?

[Ash]

I have read about many different tricks to encourage an inexperienced male to breed, among them putting him in the same enclosure as an experienced male. After trying most of the other tricks (last season and this one) my boy still shows no interest in his 'girlfriend'. My other male is an excellent breeder, so I did put them together, supervised, for about two minutes. They did lots of tail wagging, pushing hemipenes out, but once they actually started hitting each other I separated. I'm not sure about doing it again, I'm afraid it might be stressful or one or the other will get hurt. In your opinion, is this trick at all effective at encouraging breeding? Will it do more harm than good?

[RichsBallPythons]

wouldnt do a first time male at all. Being hes a virgin and fighting another male could damage his confidence and never breed.

[Ash]

wouldnt do a first time male at all. Being hes a virgin and fighting another male could damage his confidence and never breed.

Okay, thanks. Unfortunately I didn't find too much in the way of criticism of it before, but I probably wont try it again anyway. He's together with the female now, time will tell whether it's helped or hindered him. :/

[rabernet]

Okay, thanks. Unfortunately I didn't find too much in the way of criticism of it before, but I probably wont try it again anyway. He's together with the female now, time will tell whether it's helped or hindered him. :/

The Barkers state in their book that they do not battle males, because far too often, the losing male will go on to never breed because he's been defeated and lost his confidence.

[rabernet]

If you plan to breed the male with more than one female, put the two females together with the male, that sometimes works.

Save old sheds from other animals and put those in the enclosure with them. Rotate the male frequently among other females, etc. Mist the animals when you put them together, pair when you have a storm front moving in. All are tips to help get a young male to start to breed.

[RichsBallPythons]

Also sperm spreading as i call it. Popping a breeding male and taking his sperm/plugs and rubbing it on another females back to get other males in the mood.

[sookieball]

dont forget too..

virgins, like humans, dont always do it right the first time!


patience young grasshoppa. boy will become man in time.


good luck!

[Ash]

The Barkers state in their book that they do not battle males, because far too often, the losing male will go on to never breed because he's been defeated and lost his confidence.

Uh-oh... Do you think the minute he spent confronting the other male will damage him like that? As far as I can tell neither one of them 'lost', they didn't really even get going.

[rabernet]

Uh-oh... Do you think the minute he spent confronting the other male will damage him like that? As far as I can tell neither one of them 'lost', they didn't really even get going.

No - I think you're fine.