Damaged Male?

[romantisize]

So I'm just wondering - how likely is it for males to get the ends of their abdomens damaged in the process of breeding?

I put a pair of carolinas together in a spare room today and the male successfully jumped on her back and she seemed fine with him (it helped that she was eating at the time, naturally) and I left them alone for a couple hours after watching for an uneventful half-hour to make sure she wasn't going to turn on him.

She didn't, so I checked in on them periodically after that and because I never witnessed any actual connecting (even though the male seemed to be trying his best) and didn't want to take chances, I ended up separating them after a couple hours with plans to try again later.

The male seems to be 'stuck' in breeding mode though. I moved him off to a branch and he's clinging to it the same way he clung to the female and his abdomen is still kind of curled and it looks like you can look into the end of his abdomen? I understand there's an opening for breeding but it's a pretty exposed and he's been like this for awhile now so I'm kind of worried.

 

[CosbyArt]

@romantisize If you ended up prying them apart perhaps he is still in breeding mode trying to finish the job. Give him some more time and he should return to normal.

The abdomen damage you speak of though I haven't seen a male get stuck permanently. The only damage I've witnessed was from a female that turned on the male (ripping a hole). If by morning he is still not right he may have received some damage by the female, look for any wounds or possible issues causing it.

 

[romantisize]

Tragically he passed away. :-( 

I checked him over and he doesn't appear to have any other visible wounds so I'm a little baffled.

It's unlikely but I hope they did manage to connect at some point while I wasn't watching them.

 

[CosbyArt]

@romantisize Sorry for your loss.

That is strange indeed. The only thing beyond injury I can think of would be he died from old age, but what a odd time and way for it to happen if it was that.