Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I have had two clutches of eggs so far from my albino breeding to normals. One laid 4 slugs and the other laid 8 slugs and 2 good eggs. Am I doing something wrong or bad luck? Is it the male or the females? Any help would be great.

My guess would be it's the male. Sounds like the females are keeping their part of the bargain, producing folicles and moving them into the oviducts where they should meet the sperm and get shelled. If they don't meet the sperm but get shelled you'd get slugs. My best guess is that your male is either a low sperm count animal or he might not have been cooled enough to produce enough sperm to fertilize all the folicles.
Best wishes,
Python Joe

Allow me to offer up a third option; breeder error.
Is it possible your girls were too small?
Did you miss the optimal time frames for pairing?
Cycle too long/not long enough?
Temps too warm/cool?
etc........
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www.strictlyballs.ca

I had an 11 egg clutch with 1 good egg and 10 slugs, It was bred by a ghost male that I have. But the thing is that I don't understand, is that the same female laid 8 eggs last year with 7 slugs and one good egg. So is it my male(s) or the female. The males were different in the 2 different years. Really weird. I am gonna try her one more year, But she will go to a male that I know produces good eggs. I have had 4 clutches this season and only one of them has had that many infertile eggs. So I don't believe the males didn't get kooled right, No it may have a low sperm count but my ghost was only bred to 2 females this season, one of the females still has to lay. good luck

David

Wow, that sucks. Makes my first clutch of 7 slugs compared to your 12 look not as bad. I think its just bad luck, but Im no expert.

Getting the pair together too early or too late can lead to slugs, from what I understand. I would really tweak my set up, temps, breeding plan, etc. for next season. I have been very fortunate and not ever had a clutch slug out. In fact, I've had one or two infertiles over the last couple of years, but not one slug (I had a couple of slugs a few years ago in a particular females first clutch).

Get the snakes in prime condition, really work a good plan in terms of your cycling, and good luck!

If you'd like to summarize what you did in terms of cycling and introductions, I'm sure several folks would be happy to critique it.