Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Three years in a row my animals have been throwing blanks and I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. Following the standard brumation, feeding then breeding cycle, yet eggs from previously fertile males and females are coming up infertile time and time again.

Anyone experienced this before, and have a solution?

Thanks,
Roger

If your animals are cycling naturally, they may be getting too hot during their active season, especially your adult males. Try keeping them at 78-80 maximum degrees F. during their active season for a couple of years and their fertility may likely improve significantly. Also, avoid extreme cold and humidity during brumation. Another possibility is that your adults need to be put together earlier in the season and remain together (or repeatedly introduced female to male) for a longer perid of time from April to June. This longer-term stimulus often induces increased gamete production in both genders leading to more successful matings.

I hope this proves helpful. Good luck.

Hey Bob, that's all good advice. I dropped my ambient temp to 78 and turned off the heat tape. I have 7 of 8 clutches of Alterna eggs that look 100% fertile and 1 clutch that has a couple of good eggs but she has had bad eggs for 4 years and I think it is the male.
Don't try that with subocs, it will not work.

This is great info....definitely a clue for me. A couple of years back I started using heat tape to bring them out of brumation and that about when the fertility issues started. Never even occurred to me that I could have them too hot?! Will cycle them again this year, but will rework the warm-up routine and see what happens next spring.

Tried breeding them both early and late in the season with same results, so I don't think that's it. I have heard that feeding breeders lizards is supposed to help, have you heard anything on that subject?

Thanks for the great suggestion.
Roger

Including lizards in the diet of adult Lampropeltis alterna can have its benefits within a nutritional context. This species has evolved to exploit lizards as its primarary prey base, and it's reasonable to assume that this dietary specialization is important evolutionarily; however, many individuals do fine reproductively without lizards in their diet. In your situation, you may find that lizards in the your snakes diet may be beneficial and there's no harm in trying this method. Again, be most mindful of of the 78-80 degree F temerature range during the active season (no higher, especially early) and you should see improvement in the fertility of your animals. A more varied diet may compliment this over time. Another simple thing you can do for them is add some limstone chip in their water bowls. To amke it short, the calcium generated is in the same form that they would get in habitat, without added compounds found in commercial supplements.

Just following up....

2013, 10/10 hatchlings from the same male, this year not on the heat strip, allowed to warm up naturally at room temps.

2014, 6/10 hatchlings from same male and female (had invasion of the nasty black nats in the incubator...killed half the eggs in there). 2nd female that hasn't been fertile in 5 previous attempts popped out 8/9 beautiful hatchlings.

Short story, no heat strips for the males anymore.

Thanks guys!
Roger

I don't feed lizards, living in east Texas, I don't have access to anything but anoles and I would feel pretty guilty taking enough lizards out of the wild to feed a fairly large collection. I do trap wild mice for my breeding females, there is no way to know if this helps or not since I started doing it at the same time as I lowered my temps. And no, I don't feel guilty about taking enough mice from the wild to feed my snakes. I did breed Alterna successfully for years without feeding wild mice and also with heat tape but I think over the years, I raised the temps more and more until it became a problem.
Hey bob,give me a call sometime, last couple of times I tried to email you, it kicked back.