Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, it has happened...she has laid a nice little batch of eggs for her first time and they all look good, at this point...except one.

Everybody keep your fingers, toes and eyes crossed that they are fertile!!

She gets several extra rats today!

Shawn Heflick

Hello Shawn,

That would be fantastic if fertile eggs are produced! There have always been rumors the albino alligators would have high rates of infertile eggs.

I sincerely hope all of those eggs band up and hatch. Hatching out crocodilians is a wonderful event.

Truly,

Paul Bodnar
Crocodile Wildlife Conservationist

There is NO valid reason to believe Albino Alligators would have a high percentage of infertile eggs. Certainly that has NOT been the case in any other albino reptile that has reproduced in captivity. From a logical point of view it is illogical to believe that and in fact is just that, a rumor, with no validity....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Hi Tom,

A quote:

"Dr. Wolfgang Heuberger, veterinarian for reptile diseases:

In "Albino Boas" developement disorders of the babies occur, frequently leading to the death of the progeny, because the "albino-gene" is often coupled to other mutations who have a harmful impact to the embryos. Therefore in previous literature the term "lethalgene" was applied. The number of stillborn babies, infertile eggs and crippled babies is above average when the albino-gene is involved.

Furthermore, in our experience Albino embryos often stall at an early point in time and are completely absorbed by healthy females. Thus it doesn't necessarily happen that the female gives birth to dead babies or delivers infertile eggs."

Tom, this is part of a discussion based on albino boas, I do not know if it is the same scenerio in Albino Alligators. I may ask Ken Alfieri at Alligator Adventure to clarify, but as I recall he was also skeptical on an albino alligator x albino alligator pairing.

I personally hope these albino x albino's produce a high percentage of viable hatchlings without any unwanted birth defects.

Truly,

Paul Bodnar
Crocodile Wildlife Conservationist

We shall see but from personal experience with other albino herps the ONLY one I've seen any problems with has been boas. Albino Balls it seems NOT to matter as well as others. It would NOT surprise me to see a clutch of infertiles or a low fertility with this clutch ONLY because it's her first clutch and that's been my experience with several species of crocodilians but NOT because it's an albino. Many "first" clutches of crocs result in low fertility or infertiles. It will only be after the next season that it can be determined if indeed being an albino will lead to problematical clutches....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Me TOO

Shawn

Hey Paul,

We'll see...though this may not be a good indication. They have only been together less than 4 months and her weight was a bit lower than I would have liked when I recieved her.

Stay Tuned...

Shawn Heflick

Excellent!
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1.0 Albino American alligator, "Smoke"
1.1 American alligator,"Al Bite Ya & Mollie"
1.1 Purple Albino Reticulated Pythons, "Gumbo & Abita"
0.1 Eastern Gaboon Viper, "Gabbie"

CONGRATS AND OF COURSE A GOOD FRIEND LIKE MYSELF COULD RECEIVE A PRESENT OF AN ALBINO ALLIGATOR....LOL
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Great news !!!
This is going to be a long week lol
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Thank You
Jon and Amanda
www.albinosunlimited.com
Check out our New Blog

What temperature are you incubating the eggs at? Looking for a 50/50 split or a greater percentage of a particular sex?
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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'

Looking to go heavy on females, so just below 86 degrees F.

Shawn K. Heflick

Wow!! I wonder if any leucistic alligators have produced in captivity like this. Even better, maybe someone could cross an albino gator with a leucistic one (babies might come out normal but hey one can imagine can't he).

To my knowledge, the leucistics have never been captive produced either. I would love to have some double hets

Shawn Heflick