Well, I got back from Daytona to find 3 slug eggs from my female het for blonde suboc. I was pretty disappointed but not too surprised. This has been a bad year for breeding. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the following.
This year, I got infertile eggs from a red milk, three gray bands, and a suboc. My first thought is that the winter just didn't get cold enough and stay that way for long enough (I live in Central Florida). Two years ago I moved to a new house and have my snakes set up in the garage. When two cars are first parked in there it really brings the temp up. I leave the door up during the winter until the cars cool down to keep things as cool as possible. We did get some cool temps and from what I remember the garage stayed relatively cool, although in Florida the winter days can get pretty warm. I had the feeling that it was cool enough during the winter but now I'm not so sure.
The other thing I was thinking is that maybe the winter was cool enough but that when it got hot in the spring that kept the males' sperm from maturing. I especially wonder about this with the suboc since they breed later in the year and it was getting pretty hot by then. Next year, I think I'll move them inside into a rack system after hibernation. And lastly, I was wondering about diet. I feed almost exclusively frozen. I've been getting them from the same place for years and have had good luck with breeding in the past. This is the only year that's been a disaster. I'm going to start supplementing more.
Oh yeah, of the 5 snakes listed above, 2 have produced before. The other three haven't. I used to have them all in a "mud room" (a room between the garage and house) in my old house.
Any thoughts? I'm sure it could be a million and one things. It just seems weird that 5 snakes laid infertile eggs. I did get a clutch of 9 perfect eggs from a corn snake kept the same way.
