How do garter snakes breed? Garter snakes mate in early spring. Women release pheromones that attract men. Men are usually much smaller than women. When they find a woman, all men surround her and form a so-called mating ball. Each man competes to fertilize her. This can be a surprising sight for anyone who comes across it. Snakes have a pair of organs called the hemipenis. Only one is used at a time during mating. The man inserts his hemipenis into the woman's cloaca and they simply stay in that position while the sperm are transferred. (Like most things reptiles do, it's a relatively quiet event ). When mating is complete, the female carries her developing offspring into herself. Garter snakes are partially embryonic. That is, the female supplies her offspring with nutrients and oxygen from her body through the primitive placenta, and the rest comes from the yolk. This is the midpoint between embryos (feeding the offspring from the mother's body) and ovoviviparity (carrying eggs into the body and providing the offspring with the nutrients needed for development, such as spawning). Eggs have no shell, only a membrane. When young people are fully developed, in about a few months, women give birth to them and then abandon them. Young is born with a delicate "egg skin" that peels off within a few days of birth. When that happens, they can protect themselves, get enough nutrition from the remaining yolks before birth, and stay alive for some time. Also, you cannot eat for 1 days after birth.
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