Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all, I produced a litter on June 3rd 2006 that was perfect...18 babies....no slugs no stillborns all perfect babies...but one thing has me puzzled...all the babies are females!!!
That is crazy! But they are all females! Anyone ever see this before? Why do you think this happens?

Chris Gilbert and anyone with genetic knowledge...please share your insight to any of this please...Thanks Andy Federico
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all I can say is that you had wierd odds. No slugs, no stills, leaves no other explaination, as far as I see it.

I trust you sexed them correctly, since you have had experience with doing so before.

Did the sire to this litter ever father another litter for you? The male determines the sex of the offspring, if it passes an X or Y chromosome. Maybe this male is just loaded with X chromosome sperm.

And he produced males and females...

This was a smaller female...and when she was bred...she was not staying on the heat like I would have wanted her to...so about a month in on her pregnancy I put her in a Rubbermaid and regulated the belly heat so she was kept at 88-89F ...I did not want any slugs and wanted to see if this worked...anyway about the last 30 days of her pregnancy...I put her in the 4 foot breeder as usual....she had the 18 babies and all were females...I am guessing that the consistant heat may have had something to do with this as in Lizards....I thought I would bring it up for conversation...but not much interest I guess. Have a great night all. Andy
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Snakes follow the bird sex chromosome pattern rather than the mammal pattern. Males have a pair of Z chromosomes; females have a Z and a W chromosomes. In other words, the female determines the babies' sex.

If the babies were sexed correctly, then the probability of getting that many of one sex is less than one in a hundred. But low probability is not equal to impossible.

Paul Hollander

I'll have to remember that.

ive heard that if the heat is increased then females will be the majority.
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