Quote Originally Posted by Matt K View Post
As far as goes breeding, I've only seen tail wagging when my girls were receptive. Often they will push out their scent glands a bit, so I can easily believe that the tail wagging is meant to spread sex pheromones to help stimulate breeding responses from males.

On the other hand, tail wagging can be a sign of stress as well. Juveniles will do it quite often when they're caught off guard, as was mentioned above. I've also seen my adults tail wag for a brief second when I've abruptly opened their tubs. Some people argue that tail wagging during breeding is an indicator of stress as well, but I'm not with this group, as I haven't observed any other signs of stress in tail-wagging breeding females. Anywho, I have a good deal of fun watching tail wagging when it's not stress related, it's very interesting breeding behavior in my opinion. You should see Leo's tail wag, haha, it's much more furious.

Cheers,



-Matt
Haha, oh yes...I've seen the leo tail rattling. It's loud and craaazy! I can hear it form quite a ways off and somtimes the males I have just do it randomly in the middle of the night while i try to get to sleep.

As far as ball pythons go, I have yet to see it from stress myself. Or at least when another ball python is not around/considered to be breeding behaviour. I honestly didn't know they did that when stressed, lol. I've only gotten the hisses and a strike from babies.

I myself thought maybe the tail wagging with females was a good sign too because my female would do it each and EVERY time my male would be with her and I did have a sucessful breeding even with the tail wagging. If she wasn't ready I would have thought she wouldn't allow it, but it's just something we'll never be sure about I am....sure, haha!