Padawan Breeder Questions

[Bogertophis]

one of the big contributing factors which led me into snakes is that it truly sucks to put in so much time and work into a male (arachnid) only to have the female (arachnid) kill and/or eat them - so my question is to all the breeders in the audience, in the entire span of your breeding career have you ever had a pair of pythons, boas, or any other sort of snake be slain in the course of breeding? i know it’s probably rare and stuff but am still curious

Yup! Of all things, I had an adult male rat snake (amelanistic black) kill the proven-breeder female (also an amel. black rat snake) shortly after they were introduced. Both snakes were very well-fed- not that day, & had scent of prey washed off as a precaution. Everything seemed fine- I watched for a while, but when I left the room for a short time, that's when it happened. She was half-swallowed when I returned, & could not be revived. He was especially pretty (red-orange pattern on cream colors) but needless to say, he never saw another mate- at least not while he was under my roof. Jerk!