Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently purchased a nice 2011 male grayband hatchling that has one vertebra that is raised higher than the rest on its second orange band. Its hard to detect unless you know where to look and it doesn't effect its movement at all. It may be from incubation or is it possibly genetic? If I bred him would he pass that blemish onto his offspring? Whats your opinion and have any of you had any experience with this type of situation? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Kris

>>I recently purchased a nice 2011 male grayband hatchling that has one vertebra that is raised higher than the rest on its second orange band. Its hard to detect unless you know where to look and it doesn't effect its movement at all. It may be from incubation or is it possibly genetic? If I bred him would he pass that blemish onto his offspring? Whats your opinion and have any of you had any experience with this type of situation? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Kris
>>

I would call that a malnutrition kink.......Lots of alterna and mexicana will start kinking (bumps on the spine) when they are stubborn feeders.....
If this is not a stubborn feeder I would say it is a result of incubation temps and/or moisture......Most of the time it is not genetic.....i had one thayeri hatch before with a bump on its spine and by the time he was 2 years old you could not tell at all.....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

That's too bad.. he is a good looking animal..

I would think that since he is a 2011 this is an incubation related spinal kink which is fairly common in alterna... and, as john mentioned, may be caused by incubation temps/moisture.. I produce a few kinked babies every year and i usually give them away to kids as pet animals (unless the kinks are very bad).. So, i have never personally bred an animal with a kink, but i have heard of others that have without an issue..

i am interested in hearing others opinions on breeding kinked animals..

Good luck with him!

~ Mike Russo

Well, I have a story about an Hypo Everglades Rat snake that I rescued from a pet shop. They could not get it to eat, so I told them I would take full responsibillity if it died. Well long story short, I raised him up and every female I breed him too, or even his offspring too, produce all kinked babies. At best I get one or two with minimal kinks. I know it's not a grayband, but my point is that some kinks are passed down. Some are a result of various conditions as Mike and John stated, and that's probably the case in your situation, but man does anyone want a free Hypo Everglades male?
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra

My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com

It is my experience that kinks in babies can come from the mother not having enough calcium and or vitamin D to process the calcium. Fix to this problem is to give extra to the female before and during the females pregnancy. Mike Bodner
Mike Bodner's Thayeri

What is the best way to give the mother calcium and Vitamin D? Are small weanling mice rich enough in calcium? My snakes are very insistent on not having to eat large food items. Should I supplement the mother pyro's diet with a few lizards? I raise parasite free fence lizards.

I feed my snakes mice raised on a quality rodent diet. With my first clutch of pyros last year out of 7 babies one was kinked at its tail, and it died. The other 6 are robust. The eggs were nice and white, no clear spots.

My bull snake also laid her first clutch and some of the eggs had faulty calcium coating but they hatched perfect babies.

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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

Bob you can always dust the mice with a quality alcium powder like Reptical.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra

My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com

I do have a jar of Reeptical which I have used to dust pinkies; thanks for reminding me of that!
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

Mike, I'm sure some are due to low calcium, or incubation temps, but this one Hypo everglades has got to be genetic. I've tested him and his offspring for several years now, and not one single baby was born from his line that didn't have some degree of kinks.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
Jorge Sierra

My Site > www.Sierrasnakes.com