Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need to clarify what I wrote below. In the post entitles "79-81", I stated that I experimented with incubating Louisiana Pinesnake eggs at a higher than normal 84 degrees. I mis-typed my hatch results making it look like I got more females than males. I accidently transposed the numbers in the post. I meant 12.2. High females is a very good thing with animals as rare as pure Louisiana Pinesnakes

The point being that from my experiance and that of Bob Young my partner, lower temperatures consistantly produce more females. Last season I did the experiment with 84 degrees and my whole sex ratio was skewed in favor of males. This year I'm back at 79-81 and the high female ratios are back. I was afraid that I would be stuck with a bunch of insatiable rat grinding unpaired males, but now I will be able to pair up year-old males with newly born '07 females for my customers.

For those of you who were following the tread below, I hope this clarifies it.

Cheers,

Terry Vandeventer

Insatiable rat grinders??? I love it. May I borrow that phrase?

Obviously, you have much more experience working with ruthveni than I do, so I do not have the statistical "numbers" to make the observation regarding sex ratios, but I believe it is likely.
When I was directed to the Burger/Zappalorti paper it was summarized that female embryos did not thrive at higher incubation temperatures, resulting in higher male hatchlings. Their study didn't deal with TDSD. Without really thinking about the possibility, I chose and stuck with cooler temps to create an environment suitable for the female embryos.
What I can say is I have only lost one fertile egg during incubation, and have had no kinks or other temp related deformities. So due to/in spite of my incubation practices, I haven't really "lost" any females...
Burger/Gochfeld/Zappalorti wrote a bunch of good papers in the late 80's on P.m. melanoleucus behavior, I will have to look them up again.

Terry, do you have any more research/ papers coming out?

daveb

Actually I'm looking to cut back the collection by about 2/3. I'm still breeding the Louisiana Pinesnakes, leucistic cottonmouths, Yucatan Milksnakes, and Whitewalls Speckled Kingsnakes. The scores of others I don't even put together any more. Fifty years of keeping snakes and forty of breeding snakes and I'm ready to thin down. Hundreds of snakes in cages are no longer appealing to me. I know you've recently done the same. And I'm busier these days than I ever have been with my presentations, knife business, Herpetology Field Associate at the State Museum, etc.

Anyway, Bob and I are still keen on the P. ruthveni and always will be. It's also good to see more purists out there with (seemingly) less hybrids being produced and offered up as pure.

Cheers,

TV