Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Our WC Suriname redtail just dropped an unexpected and well... unsuccessful litter this morning. Final count are: 16 slugs, 10 stills, 0 lives. Really heart-breaking... (Sorry for dark pics)In addition, I got stiched by a 8 ft long female...

Nonetheless, this was an interesting litter. As you can see, all the still borns are virtually Anerythristic. I must admit that both parents has "normal" appearance, tough. If this would be genetic(let's say both parents are 100% hetero for Anery), it is very unlikly that all babies will be Anery, right? Or this appearance could be due to premature birth, when colours hadn't developed yet? Anybody has ever experienced this? Any opinons would be appreciated. Another weird think is that most of the babies were already in shed (blue eyes are cleary visible), which would suggest to me that was a late birth. However, most of them had some egg yolks that indicates a premature birth. I'm confused...
Thanks for looking!

Premature litters have Anerys and Ghosts in them all the time. At least that is what many think. YOu are correct in thinking that perhaps it just that the babies are early and the color isn't in yet.

Consider this; If the parents were both Het for Anerythristic and if you had the number of babies you had, and if they were all about the same state of development size wise and three or four of them looked like they do and the rest had normal color, then I'd say you stumbled onto something great for sure. Given what you have there however, I'd say most likely the color just wasn't in yet. Still I would try that breeding again.

Good luck!
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Jeff Ronne Sr
The Boaphile
Director USARK

Originator of Boaphile Plastics
The Boaphile Boa Site

Thank you for confirming this Jeff!
Have a great day!

Best wishes,
Adam

I am at work and the pic's are blocked on my computer, but I will try to give you my opinion.

The babies that are premature will not have the color of a full term baby....which may make them look anery. I belive that birth is what determines there first shed not there pre birth developement....My opinion.

I had a litter of BCC born on 109 days POS...there were more slugs than babies but the babies were full term...but I believe that temperature is what comes into play...I expected her to go more like 115 POS and drop.

I will look at the pic's later tonight...I am sorry for the bad results but I am assuming mom is okay...and that is the main thing any way you now know you have a breeding pair and should produce in the future.
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Joel Thomas

Don't tread on me!