Help my snakes wont breed

I have a few kingsnakes and this is the first year i have tried to breed any of them i have two 50/50 california kings i put them i hibernation then fed them for 4 weeks about 4 mice every other day (alot) and my female just shed yesterday and in my books that i have on kingsnake breeding it says that this is when to breed them but i put them together today and nuthing i dont know what happening they are both in prime condidtion and everyrthing.

I have 4 books on just kingsnake breeding that i have read up on all of them ( i have done my homework) but still nothing i dont know what i am doing wrong. The male is 2 1/2 years old and about 3 1/2 ft long and the female is 4 yrs old and is 5 1/2 foot long.

So if anyone has any idea about what i can try to change to get this to work please help me out i am 14 and i have had snakes for 5 or more year but never breed them though until now.

So if any of you experienced kingsnake breeders can help me out at all please send me some personal messages or reply to this post (id preffer the personall messages) or you can e-mail me at [email protected]

thank you all very much for you assistance

DHT,

I am not being sarcastic, but check the obvious first. Make sure you have a male and a female! It will not be the first time that sexing mistakes happen.

Regards.

I've not bred Kingsnakes, but I imagine if you've only begun trying today that you need to hold out hope and keep on trying for a few more weeks before you get worried. I've got a couple corns I've been putting together every day for over a week, and I'm still hoping the mood will strike soon. (I'm pretty sure the male is interested, but the female will have nothing to do with him!)

Sorry I'm not a lot of help, but I figured I'd post in and pop this to the top of new posts list again, maybe someone with more expierience in Kings will see it and help out.

PS~ You ARE sure you've sexed them correctly right?

Do you think it might have been just a tad early to bring them out of hibernation, like maybe about a month or two too early?

Sometimes my males do not breed until they shed twice. And many times my snakes don't breed while I am watching. But, of course, with kingsnakes you take a chance one will eat the other if you don't keep vigil.

Then again did I hear someone suggest you check the sexes to be sure, sounds like good advice.

yes i have checked the sexes lots of times i bought them bothe from breeder at the KCHS show and i had them checked by other breeder there also then i have checked them myself a few times and i brought them back with them to the fall herp show in Kansas City and they all said the same thing that the one is a female and the other is a male so i m 98% on that part and yes i didi take them out of hibernation early but i put them in about October 23 so they have been in hibernation for at least 4 months so that is plenty.

yes i didi take them out of hibernation early but i put them in about October 23 so they have been in hibernation for at least 4 months so that is plenty.

Click to expand...

One thing that's important to remember is that there are multiple additional factors that would prompt the animals to naturally enter or cease brumation or to begin copulation...

On the surface it appears very simple, they brumate, they wake up, they breed... But the natural causes of the brumation and the natural triggers to come out of that brumation may not always be present when artificially induced.

I'm going to assume that you varied the temperature... You will want to list what it started at prior to their brumation, during the brumation as a curve and leading up to the change so that some of the colubrid guys can get a better idea of what you did.

I'm also going to assume the feeding schedules were changed, you will want to detail that as finely as possible for the same reasons as above.

Have you changed the light cycle?

Have you changed the humidity?

Have you considered that barometric pressure has been shown to play a much larger role in reptile propogation than was understood to be the case a few decades back and the animals in question may be unable/unwilling to copulate and, short of placing them in a pressure controlled environment, there may be nothing you can do about it?

There's a reason that it is easiest to try to get animals to breed during the seasonal equivalents of their "mating season"... breeding in most ectotherms is a cyclical activity, trying to force it too early or too late is possible of course, but the further off the natural patterns and conditions you go, the harder it becomes.

finally got em to breed

i finally go t my 2 kingsnakes to breed it was just that i had to wait a little longer for the femal to become gravid the male has breed with her 2 times now over 3 days periond and i thought that the stayed conected but he just goes in for 5 seconds then lets go then does it agin later well thank you al very much for your help . Oh yeah and i also put my second male in with the 2 and the males fought a little then i took the male out then the male that was supose to breed became more arroused

thx everyone for your help.

dht