Posted by:
MarkS
at Mon Mar 20 17:08:32 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by MarkS ]
Will, thanks for taking the time to answer, I appreciate your response. Like I said earlier I've been hearing about overweight as being a factor in slugs for years but in my own experience it just doesn't stand up. I did get a large percentage of slugs last year, but I can't say that any of my girls were overweight. In fact if anything the opposite would be true, I've always liked to keep my snakes a bit on the lean side. All of these were first time clutches for these females (at least while in my care) and two of them hadn't been in my possession for very long. While, I've only been breeding ball pythons for four years, I've been breeding colubrids for over 15 years and I've had a few slugs from them too. In those cases, I also don't beleive that being overweight was a factor even though that was the main explanation that people brought up when I mentioned it. There are probably many factors that contribute to slugging out, being overweight might be one of them but I think other factors could be equally or even more likely to be the cause. Being underweight, being improperly conditioned, being sick, being too young, just not being put with a male at the right time, all could also be factors. I'm not saying that being overweight couldn't be a reason, I just think that it's gotten to be too easy to use that as an explanation and maybe we should be digging deeper for more solid information.
Mark
>>Hi Mark,
>>
>>Yes, I know the process that usually gives us those darn slugs, but I also believe that something malfunctions at a critical stage in an obese female and the eggs is killed somewhere between the point that it is fertilized and the point that it is deposited. Unfortunately, I don't have any research to back up this notion, only many years of seeing grossly overweight snakes drop slugs, only to have more proportioned girls bred by the same male throw 100% fertile clutches. It took me a looong time to make the connection and only did so after discussing the issue with Dave Barker regarding my olive pythons in the late 90s. To be honest, since I have been paying closer attention to the condition of my girls, my incidence of receiving slugs has dropped dramatically, almost to zero (knock on wood).
>>
>>Also, I don't mean girls that are just a little chunky, I'm refering to grossly obese snakes, you know the ones that have fat rolls, and exposed skin between the scales. Good discussion.
>>
>>Will
[ Hide Replies ]
- My first clutch, can you say SUCK - kylescott, Sun Mar 19 22:49:04 2006
- RE: My first clutch, can you say SUCK - kylescott, Sun Mar 19 22:50:59 2006
- RE: My first clutch, can you say SUCK - chrisssanjose, Sun Mar 19 22:58:11 2006
- RE: My first clutch, can you say SUCK - jfmoore, Sun Mar 19 23:36:14 2006
- RE: My first clutch, can you say SUCK - MarkS, Mon Mar 20 01:26:29 2006
- Don't kick (or shoot) yourself... - Christy Talbert, Mon Mar 20 06:39:30 2006
- RE: My first clutch, can you say SUCK - nita, Mon Mar 20 08:54:59 2006
- not all problems are with fat girls..... - jyohe, Mon Mar 20 16:36:48 2006
- The only other conclusion - kylescott, Mon Mar 20 21:02:54 2006
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RE: this is a well known phenomenon - MarkS, Mon Mar 20 17:08:32 2006