# Breeding snakes behaviours



## Demi mccullough (Apr 24, 2018)

Hi my female and male carpet pythons were put together and the female began wagging her tail and some pink bits were seen by her cloaca then after a bit of time I saw what looked like dark blood on the newspaper but when looking over both snakes there were no bleeding spots or anything I separated them and then after a clean out of the cage I saw some more of the dried blood trails in my females tank but no blood on her anywhere ? Anyone have any ideas?


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## Mick666 (Apr 24, 2018)

I don't know if the blood thing is normal, maybe give "vet 2 you" a call. He's the best in the Whitsundays.
[doublepost=1524517785,1524517579][/doublepost]some photos could be helpful too, there are some clever people on here.


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## Yellowtail (Apr 24, 2018)

Thats what they look like when they have been mating.


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## Bl69aze (Apr 24, 2018)

Ewww Today I learned


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## Pauls_Pythons (Apr 24, 2018)

Its normal.


Demi mccullough said:


> Hi my female and male carpet pythons were put together and the female began wagging her tail and some pink bits were seen by her cloaca then after a bit of time I saw what looked like dark blood on the newspaper but when looking over both snakes there were no bleeding spots or anything I separated them and then after a clean out of the cage I saw some more of the dried blood trails in my females tank but no blood on her anywhere ? Anyone have any ideas?



Completely normal


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## Mick666 (Apr 24, 2018)

so, is the tail wagging thing normal too? and is it a sign that she's ready to mate?


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## Demi mccullough (Apr 24, 2018)

Yellowtail said:


> Thats what they look like when they have been mating.View attachment 323883


That's looks like what is saw when she was moving around


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## Pauls_Pythons (Apr 24, 2018)

Mick666 said:


> so, is the tail wagging thing normal too? and is it a sign that she's ready to mate?



Yes. I guess the easiest way to describe it is flirting


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## Demi mccullough (Apr 24, 2018)

Pauls_Pythons said:


> Its normal.
> 
> 
> Completely normal


So is it blood? I was googling since there isn't much on it and nothing in my complete carpet python book? The closest I got to something is that it could be scent smearing?


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## Pauls_Pythons (Apr 24, 2018)

It could well be blood.
It can be distressing the 1st time you see it but I assure you there is nothing unusual in this at all.


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## Demi mccullough (Apr 24, 2018)

Pauls_Pythons said:


> It could well be blood.
> It can be distressing the 1st time you see it but I assure you there is nothing unusual in this at all.


Thank you so much! I freaked out so does that mean that the most like mated when I wasn't looking? 

This has been helpful I was expecting the tail wagging but the blood seemed to throw me off and the first thing I though was that they've bitten each other but both are completely fine and didn't seem stressed at all
[doublepost=1524534312,1524534241][/doublepost]Thank you everyone for all your help, both snakes aren't stressed at all and since I cleaned the cage again I haven't seen more of the blood so they should be okay


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## Pauls_Pythons (Apr 24, 2018)

Demi mccullough said:


> so does that mean that the most like mated when I wasn't looking?




While many are quite 'brazen' some can be very secretive.


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## Nero Egernia (Apr 25, 2018)

That's good to know. Not sure if I'll give breeding a go or not this season but at least I'll know what to look for. Always learn something new on here.


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## Pauls_Pythons (Apr 25, 2018)

Pauls_Pythons said:


> While many are quite 'brazen' some can be very secretive.



To embelish on my comment.
Last year for some reason my snakes were hardly seen mating at all. One female I never saw mating laid 12 healthy eggs. Another I saw mating only twice laid 11.

The previous season I saw them mate so many times I stopped taking notes. This was a behaviour that was noticed by another breeder I spoke too last season as he was experiencing similar behaviour from his. Not sure why, (ambient temps or weather would be my best guess) but it certainly wasn't a one off it was accross my whole breeding collection.


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