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After slightly over a year of carrying slugs, my female redthraot layed 6 eggs in early April/03. Three died, and three hatched out over the last week. The last time this snake mated with a male would have been, in Feb/02 & Jan,Feb/01!! Unfortunately she died 2 days after laying the six large eggs. Three eggs have hatched and produced 1.2, one white throat male, and two red throat females which take after their mother. The male visually resembles the adult male from the Feb/01 mating!!! The male from the 02 mating does have some red on the throat. Delayed fertilization, a first for me. On a slightly different note, the Yellowtails are proving to be a real challenge to get feeding.......Dwight

That really sucks!
Sorry to hear of your loss.
What a bad year for Eastern Indigos!

Bobby

Dwight, sorry to hear of your loss.
Interesting post, I've never heard of delayed fert. in Drys before. You might consider writing up & submitting for publication as a tech-note.
Re those slugs she carried...did she actually drop slugs & then lay fertile eggs afterwards w/o male contact? Or did you surmise slugs by lumpiness & assume that they were reabsorbed later?
Good luck w/ those neonates, I'd be inclined to sell em off as "non-started" & not have to mess w/ each of them. Im seeing Deans wanting 500 in the classifieds...How much will they fetch up yonder in Canada?
C&B...jg

Posted by: dwight at Sat Jul 12 13:46:50 2003 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

After slightly over a year of carrying slugs, my female redthraot layed 6 eggs in early April/03. Three died, and three hatched out over the last week. The last time this snake mated with a male would have been, in Feb/02 & Jan,Feb/01!! Unfortunately she died 2 days after laying the six large eggs. Three eggs have hatched and produced 1.2, one white throat male, and two red throat females which take after their mother. The male visually resembles the adult male from the Feb/01 mating!!! The male from the 02 mating does have some red on the throat. Delayed fertilization, a first for me. On a slightly different note, the Yellowtails are proving to be a real challenge to get feeding.......Dwight

I've mentioned before where I read from an old snake book about a female indigo that dropped fertile eggs 5 years after her last introduction to a male. I guess this is the second time I've heard of it.

Very cool indeed.

Doug T

Hey there Mr T, long time-no post.
This is one of those insights into guardian biology that would be pretty darn difficult to acertain from wild free roaming snakes eh?
Mojo & I have to wonder tho,.... why?
A simple explanation that fits the observation might be that it is a case where pop. densities are typically so low that females may enter reproductive condition & be missed by the males. With the mobility of these snakes & that big tongue to follow a phermone trail....I just cant buy that explanation.
I for one have never had a w/c female of any herp produce viable young unless she was gravid @ the time of capture.
BTW; did you get that demo-shareware to load & function?
Saludos, jg

But then again, we know that rattlesnakes can reproduce parthenogenically and don't they usually overwinter together?

I guess it's just another reason to enjoy these critters.

Doug T

Doug,

Sounds like we read the same text. I don't remember where I read (name of the text(s)), but if I recall correctly, I read of delayed fertilization in drys. from MORE than one source ten or fifteen years ago.

Thane
Thane-N-Mandys place