Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have had 1.1 alterna for the past nine yrs, theyve never been burmated or hibernated, and have been co-habitating thier whole lives, well just about 1 hour ago, i saw them breeding, but they have not been burmated, does anyone think the female will lay fertile eggs? can a male produce viable sperm without being hibernated or without a natural photo-period?
your input is apperciated
jamin

There are a couple of thoughts about this. One is that they must be brumated for various reasons. The other is that they do not need to be brumated. Frank Retes recently responded to one of the forums discussing how he believes the the entire process is dependent on the male and producing viable sperm. If a female ovulates, she ovulates. She is only going to then produce good eggs if she is mated with a male that has viable sperm. He believes that viable sperm is more dependent upon the health of the male than upon whether or not it is brumated. When a male comes out of brumation they are normally somewhat stressed. They need time to recover and get back to normal production of sperm. If the female is ready and the male is introduced he will breed even if his sperm are not ready. It may take longer for the male to be ready or "No good eggs" in that case. He believes that the males can be kept healthy and should be long before the female ovulates and a good breeding can take place.

I tend to believe Frank's idea. Especially since I have, on many occasions, bred alterna without brumation. I will admit that there have been occasions where brumation did make a difference (even if in my own mind) in the number of eggs and consistency of breeding.

Bottom line is, if they bred, she was more than likely ovulating. If the male was healthy and unstressed he could very possibly produce viable sperm. You will know soon enough if she lays eggs and they look good at laying. If not good, they will more than likely look bad from the start.

Good Luck/

ECT

excellent! you've given me hope.
what do 'good' eggs look like as apposed to 'bad' eggs?

Normally good alterna eggs will be white, full looking, uniformly shaped, and stuck together. Bad eggs will probably be off white to yellow, oddly shaped, soft and very pliable, and be somewhat slimey not stuck together.

If eggs are stuck toghether, do not separate them. You could tear them and cause them to leak which will probably ultimately cause them to die. Whether or not they look good, set them up and as they go "obviously" bad remove them from the box. If the eggs are laid not stuck together, place them in the incubation box well separated from each other. If the eggs look good and sometime during incubation one goes bad and they are stuck together you could very carefully try to pry the dead egg loose and remove it. But, be very careful not to tear the good eggs. I have had a bad egg go completely fungal and shrivel up without bothering the other eggs it was stuck to. I am sure in the wild some eggs go bad and do not kill all the other eggs.

Good luck.

ECT