Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted a ways back that my female Black Milk passed some slugs and wondered if she was OK. As it turns out she laid all slugs this year and I'm wondering why. A friend of mine suggested that if I kept my male too warm it could have "killed" his sperm and contributed to the infertile clutch. That said, should I turn off the heat and try pairing my Milks again this year or should I hold off until next Spring? She is large and has great weight and they both are eating with gusto again. Looking for some thoughts. Thanks!
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Ken Roshak
BlackSwampSerpents@toast.net

The male being housed at to warm of a temp is usally my first suspect when a whole clutch of eggs is laid infertile. I had it happen this year with a clutch of Hog Nose eggs. I prefer to wait till the next year. Personally, I don't want to risk stressing the female out again if there's a chance the eggs will be infertile again. I would rather spend that time bulking her up for next year.
Chris

Thanks Chris. I'm figuring something was wrong with temps because both male and female are very healthy and fit for breeding/laying I was surprised and bummed to see the whole clutch was bad.
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Ken Roshak
BlackSwampSerpents@toast.net

Ken,

When you say turn off the heat, what do you mean? What is your heat set up and to what temp? I don't know of many that have black milks on heat unless they're kept in a cool basement or something.

Dave

DNS Reptiles

Thanks Dave. Yeah, it's my fault for leaving the UTH on. But since they are housed in a 55 and 70 gallon aquarium only part of the enclosure "had heat" but that area was high 80's. My basement does get cool Fall through Spring and gets as low as high 50's to low 60's during the Winter. During the Summer it's high 70's to low 80's and since the Milks are near the ground they are high 70's. I've read about Black Milks being kept with no supplemental heat but I guess I figured my surroundings are too cool to not provide some UTH heating to be used if needed. The female's egg box, however, was half-way over the heated area so in hindsight it was likely too warm. Do you feel even UTH is needed?
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Ken Roshak
BlackSwampSerpents@toast.net