So I picked up a 1.1 pair of MBKs from a local breeder, after going there to get some feeders:
I was doing some research online, but couldn’t seem to find much info on them in terms of sexing and breeding.
Are they able to be visually tail sexed like hognoses? I’d like to make sure I do in fact have a 1.1 pair.
How big/old do they have to be to breed?
I can’t speak for sure on how to sex but I think with colubrids (at least most probably not hognose) it’s safest to go with the rule of three. Three years, 300 grams, and Three feet long. That’s the way I was taught and would consider it the most common? way breeders do it.
Yeah, with hognoses I know females need to be around 250-300 grams and 2-3 years of age. Males can breed as small as 60-70 grams, 1-2 years of age. I’ve even heard of people breeding males at 40 grams.
Hopefully some others will be able to give insight as well, I’m slowly moving into adding more colubrid species to my collection and want to be able to understand the expectations for breeding them.
Popping is the easiest way to sex baby colubrids, as well as the safest out of popping vs probing. You can also feel for speed bumps and look at the length of their tails.
Not sure how much they weigh, but an adult female will likely be around 5 feet, and a male slightly less. These are king snakes so the likelihood of them trying to eat each other when breeding is higher than any other kind of snake. Definitely not the easiest to breed, so I would do a lot of research. Did you ask if the pair was related as well?
I’ll have to try popping then, I’m pretty experienced with that anyways.
The breeder I got them from didn’t produce the pair themselves, they bought them off another breeder… so I’m not sure if they have that info on them or not. I could always ask.
They were talking about trying to find breeding pairs so I’m thinking if a breeder sold this to them as a breeding pair, they’d be unrelated.
I got weights on them when I got them home, the female is 47 grams, the male 18 grams. I’m slightly inclined to think they’re not related due to the size difference, but there could be other factors affecting that.
And yeah, that’s something I’ll have to keep in mind when I breed them. From the research I did, usually breeders introduce them and then remove the male after a copulation is witnessed, to reduce risk of boyfriend-munching. I’ll probably also make sure to have fed her the day before so she’s less inclined to try eating him.
So, I figured out how to pop them… and I got two males, I think. I’m confident on the bigger one being male for sure, but I’m doubting myself on the smaller one just because his penes are so small (and I guess half of my brain keeps thinking it could be like how female ball pythons have scent glands that look like mini-penes 
)
Bigger one:
Smaller one:
Just posting here to confirm my sexing before I reach out to the breeder. I’m good friends with them so hopefully they can either give me a partial refund or work something out with me. I’ll likely keep the bigger male since he already ate for me, and sell/return the smaller one.
Edit: Went ahead and messaged one of the owners, she said “absolutely” on me returning the two for a refund. So I don’t have to worry about that too much.
I realize I’m just being paranoid and really don’t need confirmation, I actually palpated both of them for the “speed bumps” prior to popping them, and they both had the speed bumps.
They were a bit harder to feel in the smaller male at first, but they were definitely there.
