Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone, this is my first post so go easy on me , lol .

How many of you breeding the Thayer's Kingsnake have problems with infertile eggs on a regular basis.

if you do, what do you think the underlying problems could be.

Thankyou for your time.

Abe.

it could be many things and then it could be one thing but I don't normally have infertile eggs. I've had my thayeri breeders actively producing fertile eggs for the last 5-6 years. The only thing I changed this year was that I added a second male in the mix who was a first year breeder. That could explain a less than 50% fertility in my eggs. I gave up long ago trying to figure it all out...I've just decided that in farming you'll have good years and bad....and try not to get to bummed when things turn out less than desirable.

Next year I will isolate two females per male and not swap males in and out of the group.

Russ

Thanks Russ
its just that i see so many postings that are mentioning they have infertile eggs.
i did have a problem with infertily a few years back, nothing to do with the females but the males, the problem was that at the time i was power feeding and by keeping the males at the constant higher temps ie 88 with no cool off spot they were producing non viable sperm. that happened for three seasons, i did get some fertile eggs but at least 80% was bad. everything turned around when i stopped the constant high temps for the males. normal temps 84 and a cool end of 70 or lower and hey presto good clutches and all fertile except for the odd slug as you would expect as the norm.

cheers
Abe.

I couldn't agree with you more. My thayeri thrive at room temps of 74-80 and I don't use heat on the males at all.
Russ