Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know this is an old topic discussed on other forums but this year I have had several kingsnake clutches that were almost all male.

One clutch was 15 males and one female.
another was 10 males and one male
and one other with 9 males and two females

I mentioned this to one person who was a prospective buyer and he withdrew his offer saying their must be a genetic problem with some of my lines saying there are too many variables that might make this an unhealthy situation down the road. He mentioned a similar situation on one of the forums of a guy that had some hybrid tree boas that produced heavy if not all males 2 or 3 years in a row.

Anyone else have some bad sex ratios this year or in the past?

I don't think it has anything to do with genetics. IMHO, it's a toss of the coin. In 2003 I produced mostly male white phase brooksi. Last year I only got one male. I think it averages out over time.

Brandon Osborne

....on just what you're looking for.. I mean, if you're looking to get a really nice female example of snake "A" then at the breeder's table where you see what you like, there will be only males!
That's the law.
Seriously, I have had some clutches in the past that were nearly all male (12.1 etc.)but I don't recall any clutches that were more than say 6-8 eggs, being mostly (>75%) female.
Wonder why??
Is there a "normal" average of higher males to females in the wild??
Maybe so..
:Mark

Hahahahahahaha, a string of bad luck, maybe.

Over the years I have hatched thousands of snakes, I have never seen a bias for one sex or another, longterm. You must understand, percentages, if kingsnakes have a normal 50/50 sex ratio, then understand, thats over large numbers, not small numbers.

I have had clutches of all males, and all females, then mostly one or the other for many clutches. All in all over time, its about 50% Remember there is no absolute top limit. Heck you could get 500 males in a row,(really really bad luck) then get one female, then 500 more males(don't play the lottery) And over time have it work itself back to 50%. While this would be extremely rare, it could happen.

Now, if you can recreate your conditions and see the same result year after year, your on to something. I am just not sure you would want to be on to that something, hahahahahahahaha.

So I say, better luck next time, FR

"maybe on to something" would you mean maybe the incubating temps or other conditions are causing the lopsided ratios? I am sure someone has done some note taking or research to see if incubating at different temps has anything to do with the yields. Could it be temps from brumatation? Anyone else's thoughts? I just think that to be highly odd but my Grandfather did come from a family of 7 boys and 1 girl(same father too) .

From my notes I can find no obvious correlation to sex and temps (lopsided ratios). For instance in '03, the last time I had a clutch of 8.1, the same temps were used for all my other eggs and no others were skewed that way. The same pair produced a 2nd clutch of 8 and they turned out to be 3.5.
Of course that is a tiny tiny example.
I bet there are more serious experiments and data out there.
Let's just wait for Rainer to cook his in the attic and see what happens, huh Rainer?? Keep those notes up to date!
:Mark

What I was hinting at is, there may be something other then temps that is responsible. I could even be temps, but temps we do not normally use. Not the normal temp flucuation use to temperature sex other reptiles.

I have used different temps from the low 70"s to 90 F and have not seen any thing odd. But what about a flucuation between 55F and 95F or some such thing? Or maybe something else entirely. FR

What temp what your great grandfather brumated at?

>>"maybe on to something" would you mean maybe the incubating temps or other conditions are causing the lopsided ratios? I am sure someone has done some note taking or research to see if incubating at different temps has anything to do with the yields. Could it be temps from brumatation? Anyone else's thoughts? I just think that to be highly odd but my Grandfather did come from a family of 7 boys and 1 girl(same father too) .

It was booze.

Yeah... agreed. I mean what was this guy basing his hypothesis on?

Have you guys ever noticed a predominance of one sex over the other and tied it to incubation temps? I guess that would only pan out if you had several clutches of eggs from the same species... and all of them were collected from the same locale and you kept accurate records of the incubation temps from the same group of animals over many years...

Ahhhh man - I am too tired to think about this now --- these baby snakes have kept me up all night and I am getting dilusional...
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Peter Jolles
East Coast Colubrids
www.eastcoastcolubrids.com
peterjolles@eastcoastcolubrids.com