Mission success?

[Tila]

I paired a couple of my ball pythons yesterday and I saw them in a lock this morning. When I went to clean out my female's tub this evening, I noticed 2 sperm plugs plastered to the paper towel substrate. (I can provide a photo if needed but I'm almost certain they were plugs)

If I saw them locked but I also found some plugs, should I count it as a successful lock?

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[Alicia]

Yes, count it.

"Sperm Plugs" are really hemipenile casts. They're the old shed skin, dead sperm (some live and dying sperm) and other, scent-laden secretions that collect inside the hemipenes. When the male everts, the casts pop out and adhere to the substrate and female. Ideally, the now-clean pene is functioning as it's supposed to. Should a hemipenile cast end up inside the female's cloaca, it likely functions as an irritant, and she'll flush it. The tendency of the casts to pop off so well when the pene comes out is also great for the sperm -- python sperm has to swim down the grooves on the outside of the pene on their own, any material left behind would seriously be in their way.

Real sperm plugs are used by other species, where the male is using a glob of live sperm to inseminate the female (or the female walks over to the plug after the male deposits it to inseminate herself with it, as with some amphibians . . . I cannot remember if I'd be correctly calling them newts or salamanders ). There's also a post-insemination plug used by male Garter Snakes as a way of keeping other males out.

I don't know if that helped, but, hopefully that was some nice pointless trivia for everyone

[Reptilius]

WooHoo, awesomness.
Now we wait for the eggs, keep us posted.

[Tila]

Yes, count it.

"Sperm Plugs" are really hemipenile casts. They're the old shed skin, dead sperm (some live and dying sperm) and other, scent-laden secretions that collect inside the hemipenes. When the male everts, the casts pop out and adhere to the substrate and female. Ideally, the now-clean pene is functioning as it's supposed to. Should a hemipenile cast end up inside the female's cloaca, it likely functions as an irritant, and she'll flush it. The tendency of the casts to pop off so well when the pene comes out is also great for the sperm -- python sperm has to swim down the grooves on the outside of the pene on their own, any material left behind would seriously be in their way.

Real sperm plugs are used by other species, where the male is using a glob of live sperm to inseminate the female (or the female walks over to the plug after the male deposits it to inseminate herself with it, as with some amphibians . . . I cannot remember if I'd be correctly calling them newts or salamanders ). There's also a post-insemination plug used by male Garter Snakes as a way of keeping other males out.

I don't know if that helped, but, hopefully that was some nice pointless trivia for everyone

Super helpful! Things you didn't know you didn't know...

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[Tila]

WooHoo, awesomness.
Now we wait for the eggs, keep us posted.

Sure. To set the stage: 3 breeding females; Buttercup, a cinna bee pastel; Onion, a pinstripe; and Rosemary, het ghost. For the males: Sage, black pastel het ghost; and Bach, possible spider pastave. He is interesting because I got him from someone as spider pastave since when he was bred to that person's female, offspring resulted that his previous owner was not expecting, hence the amended label. So we'll see, fingers crossed and sacrifices to the Odds Gods

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