Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I'm looking for assistance from anyone who knows how to collect a ball python sperm sample to be viewed under a microscope... and yes, I'm expecting some good humor to come from this post, but I am seriously looking for help here. I recently obtained a lab quality microscope for the primary purpose of using it to tell when a male is getting the job done (i.e. depositing adequate quantities of live sperm). I've seen videos in the past of snake sperm under the scope, so I know it can be done, but so far I'm not having much luck... I'm sure my technique is just all wrong. So far I've tried swabbing the cloaca of a recently bred female with a wet Qtip and then wiping it on slide. I've also tried to get a sample using a large sexing probe, but so far nothing has resulted in being able to see any swimmers.
Any help is much appreciated!
Dan

I remember a long time ago a colubrid guy was doing the same thing. I know he took a sample from the recently bred female. I don't know his method. Bob Applegate, maybe? First interesting thing in a while though. Good Luck

I think it was in colubrids that I saw it being done too... years ago. Might have been Bob Applegate. I'll see what I can find. Thanks for the help Mike.

you said WET Q-tip.....
try a dry one.........?

.....and....

is he copulating?.....he's getting them in there......99.9 % of the males are doing it correctly I bet....I know you want to know How many sperm.....well....I bred balls from Oct to March, they each bred alot...let's say 10 times...and bred for 9 hours each.....so...9 hours x 10 times is 90 hours....at what?...100,000 sperm per drop???...(I am guessing here)....that's alot .....

(for giggles...do the math on how many hours a year YOU and I get to deposit sperm).....

(I know exactly how many I dropped last year.)
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........JY

I tried a wet Q-tip because there did not seem to be enough moisture going on there without it.

Just trying to learn as much as I can about what's going on there. After all it's a big and important part of this process. For instance, one thing I'd like to know is just how effective are these very young males. I think with the right information it could change some of the ways we are doing things.

Cheers,
Dan

well...people bred 350 gram males for awhile now...this weekend alone a guy told me of his 450 grammer playing it well...then another guy tells me of his 2011, 175 gram male breeding.....yea....I , personally...have used small males...like 770 grams...yea...10 month old and 770 grams ....more or less....and he worked....

I usually didn't have males actually try and breed till they went through a winter...so they were usually into the second year till they worked...like 16 to 22 months old....

I have used males that may have been 30 ?...no idea...HUGE....they bred alot of females....

...small males....well...small males ahve small penes...therefore the vent on the female won't be bubbling with moisture when they are finished...a 5 1/2 foot ,30 year old male that just bred for 14 hours...you will have no need to use a wet tip most of the time....

try dry Q-tip and squeeze the female a little bit...not too much...maybe a couple inches of her...it will be counter productive...(you actually want to squeeze it upwards INTO her)...(((which makes me wonder why people squeeze the crap out of females and say they wantr to feel follicles,while squeezing sperm count the wrong way..)))....

or IF you are very lucky and see them part ways...the male should be wet also....

....? just squeeze the male ? see what happens....

...
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........JY

Must be a LONG montana winter huh dan???

Scott Austin

http://vetmed.illinois.edu/mmitch/pdf/corn snake semen.pdf

Debris around the
cloaca was removed manually to minimize contamination.
The cloaca was lavaged with physiologic
saline before sample collection. Semen was collected
by gentle craniocaudal digital massage of the
caudoventral one third of the snake. Semen expelled
from the vent was collected with a tuberculin
syringe.

Paul's info is a good start but I would suggest a couple things you might try before going that route.

First, "physiologic saline". Important distinction there. If you are just using plain water or the like you are going nuke the sperm cells so they will not look/act normal. If you can, get a bottle of PS or KRPD from your vet.

Second, I would try popping a few males and see if you can get a good sample off of them so that when you transition to checking from a female you can know what you are looking at/for.

Thanks guys - great info and advice. I'll get ahold of some physiologic saline and give it another go. I think I'll start with a male as suggested,figure out the methodology, and then try to collect from a freshly bred female. Should be fun. I love seeing how things work!

I bet they would know how.

This article is interesting. I haven't personally tried masturbating a snake, but it might be worth a shot if you are so inclined.

"The first successful masturbation of a snake was when a male Eastern Brown Snake was seen mounting a female (who was already gravid from him).

The caudal region was stroked with my finger and the snake was visibly aroused and attempted to copulate with it.

As I rubbed the snake (just above the cloacal opening on the side of the base of the tail), the snake became stimulated and after loss than a minute he ejaculated semen."

http://www.smuggled.com/AIS2.htm
AI

I was able to view live snake sperm under my microscope once when I found a "wet spot" left on a plastic cage bottom by a pair of copulating colubrids. I have metal dental tools I use for scraping debris from cage bottoms and I used a spatula shaped one to just scrape lightly across the wetness. I smeared it onto a slide and placed a coverslip over it (this flattens it to a minimal thickness so it becomes visible microscopically). I was amazed at the numbers of live "swimmers" I was able to see! Perhaps if you kept a breeding pair of ball pythons on a surface with no substrate, such as plastic box, you may find trace amounts of seminal fluid that you could collect?
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Susan Sentman
SSNAKES Reptiles
susan@ssnakes.com