Reptile & Amphibian Forums

a thread below raised the question of how one can know, one year, that the babies were fathered by that year's matings, and not by retained sperm from the prior year.

obviously the appearance of a phenotype that can't be produced from the current year's matings would be evidence of retained sperm. but there could be instances where phenotypes might "match" both year's expectations but genotypes could still differ.

So these questions, your feedback requested:

1. have you ever gotten babies that simply could not have been fathered by the current year's matings? if so, please provide details--did the female breed and lay very late the prior year? did she breed but NOT lay? etc.

2. have you ever NOT bred a female and still gotten babies, babies which had to have been fathered from the prior year? if so, when did she breed in the prior season? did she breed-and-lay? or breed and not lay? etc. On other occasions when you didn't breed a female in a given season, did they lay good eggs anyway? not lay? lay slugs?

thanks
terry

Hey Terry,
This season I had one of my Hypo honduran pairings that mated and produced a first clutch of 11 eggs, 9 of which hatched. This was a large clutch with all the babies hatching at over 30 grams each with the exception of one baby at 28 grams. I specifically did not want to double clutch her because after egg laying she weighed in at 767 grams and I did not want to risk the possibility of egg binding. I continued her feeding schedule of 3-4 mice a week to get her weight back up and the next thing I knew she was gravid again. She didn't get as large as she normally gets when gravid which made it hard to tell if she was just "full of food" or "full of eggs" but I put in a nesting box anyways after her pre egg-laying shed. She laid a small clutch of 7 eggs of which only 2 hatched and the rest were slugs. One baby weighed in at 19 grams and the other at 20 grams. Not exactly the largest of babies but they are your typical squirmy baby with voracious appetite hondos. Attached is a link to a picture of mom right after she laid her first clutch. Hope this helps. Barin
'02 VP Hypo (Byron Barnes stock)

thanks. for others following this thread, i've also had occasions where females laid good first clutches and then were not subsequently bred again--females i was content with getting a single clutch from--that then proceeded to lay again. I've gotten clutches of slugs, partials, and all good eggs in such clutches, so clearly sperm can sometimes be retained for a couple months or so to fertilize a 2nd clutch.

i look forwrd to other reports.

peace
terry

Hope some of the experience breeders make the effort in answering some of Terry's questions. I have been fortunate enough to get breeding results of my intended projects but am anxious to also find out what other people have experienced on the contrary.

Thanks,
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RAY