I guess it’s as much of a surprise as when humans say it was a “happy accident”. I have an Albino F and a Snow M as pets. I decided to brumate last year cause the summer before was brutal and they were already slowing down naturally over a really cold winter.
Took them out during a heatwave in January, thought i’d try my hand at breeding since a few of my friends are desperate for hoggies, paired through out Feb - March but didn’t actually see any breeding behaviors from my male, assumed he wasn’t interested and pulled them apart. My female shed during a rainy weekend earlier this month. I tried putting my male in with her again after a week or two break thinking she’s gotten gradually back up size for ovulation. He immediately showed very eager signs of wanting to to breed. Kept up pairing, then resting, then pairing again.
I checked after work yesterday afternoon and noticed her looking obviously deflated and him not that interested in her.
and FOUND EGGS IN HER LAY BOX!!!
i felt so dumb. Poor thing had a man on her ass when she was worried about laying. I even tried to feel if there were eggs and thought there weren’t. they were candled had about 4 great looking eggs, 2 with no veins, and 2 very obvious slugs. Its her first clutch, both first time breeding so the eggs weren’t super calcified but we’ll see !
They have since been separated and fed. It was a nice learning experience (learning i know nothing). i’ll probably still brumate annually going forward. But I think I’ll leave the breeding to the folks who know what they’re doing next time!