Sperm Retention ????

Sperm Retention ????

Postby rolandslf » Wed Nov 05, 2014 9:06 am

Good Morning All

On 6 October 2014, I reported that my Snow Motley Male Corn had hooked up with my Normal Female Corn.
They Locked over the course of the weekend of 3/4 October 2014.
I also only put them together 3 times, with 3 locks occurring.

Now here is the problem, she is in what seems to be the Pre-Lay Blue Stage and should shed this coming weekend or in the first half of next week.
She will obviously lay her eggs in about 10 days from then, making the lay date to be about anywhere from the 20 November to 25 November.
I make this at around the 48 t0 53 day mark, is this not about a week or two early.

Did she retain sperm from last years mating, or am I being worried for nothing. I got her as an adult this year, so I don't even know if she was bred last year.

The Amel Female that was mated about 2 weeks before her with the same male, shows no sign of Gravidity.

Here is a pic I took last night of her.

Image
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby Westley Price » Wed Nov 05, 2014 11:38 am

Ag I say just let her be.

There's not really much you can do at this stage, so stressing about it will not help.

The only issue I foresee is the sale of the hatchlings. You will not with 100% confidence be able to tell what hets they have without being confident about the sire.

One has to also remember that snakes don't read the books we read, so they dont know to drop the eggs 10 days after pre-lay shed ;)

Maybe she still takes a few extra days to shed and a few extra days to drop and you'll be back on track.

Please update the thread the day she drops and we can do a few more accurate calculation.

Good luck.
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby rolandslf » Wed Nov 05, 2014 12:07 pm

I will update when she lays. She does not have any hets that I am aware of.
Luckily, I don't breed my snakes to make money, so I am not worried about what hets the babies will be.
I would rather sell them reasonably cheaply as normal with unknown hets.

There has of course been cases where a female, with unknown hets lays eggs, and a veritable smartie box of babies hatches.
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby gekosin » Wed Nov 05, 2014 2:07 pm

Happened to me last year, was not planning on breeding and ended up with 2 clutches of eggs... Good luck either way :) I have still not had any luck with hatching eggs.
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0.3.0 Corn Snake (Normal, High Bloodred, Motley Gold Dust)
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby rolandslf » Wed Nov 26, 2014 1:35 pm

An update on this girl. She shed over the weekend of the 8/9 November 2014.
She started laying eggs on 17 November 2014 and as of yesterday had laid a total of 21 eggs and seems to have 3 or 4 more still to be laid.
The odds however have not been overly good as the ratios of the eggs laid thus far are as follows.
11 x Fertile, 2 x Infertile, 8 x Slugs.

I am watching to see that the remaining eggs are indeed laid, and that she does not become eggbound.
She laid the first egg at day 43, way too early as far as I am concerned.

The Amel female is dead on track with nature and has gone into the blue.
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby Ruan Stander » Wed Nov 26, 2014 3:28 pm

Congratulations. Good luck hatching the good eggs, still a decent clutch though.
How would one know whether or not a female has more eggs to lay ?
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby rolandslf » Thu Nov 27, 2014 12:12 pm

She dropped 2 more fertile eggs yesterday and looks like a last one she has to push out.

When you have had a female for a decent length of time, you can see visually if she is gravid or not.
When laying eggs it is easily seen by the size of eggs laid, how many are still inside her.

I think it is mainly though, just years and years of experience breeding snakes.
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby Ruan Stander » Thu Nov 27, 2014 6:21 pm

Most definitely that just requires experience. I bred my female for the first time this year, and I was not even 100 %sure whether she was gravid or not, but it seemed like it and I expected a really tiny clutch. She did however drop 14/15 eggs on Monday, but I wouldn't for the life of me be able to tell if she has any left.

I put her laying box back in yesterday after reading this thread and up to now there is nothing yet, it was only out for one whole day, on Tuesday.
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby rolandslf » Fri Nov 28, 2014 11:02 am

Take a full length photo of her, as close as you can get and still capture her full length.
Post the photo here so we can see her, I am sure someone will be able to help you.
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby Ruan Stander » Fri Nov 28, 2014 8:25 pm

Thanks, I'll try and get it done on Sunday.
I'm not overly concerned, as her behaviour is perfectly normal and she has began feeding again.
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby rolandslf » Mon Dec 01, 2014 2:27 pm

Just a quick update, 14 fertile eggs.
She shed 3 weeks ago, laid the eggs and is deep into the post egg laying shed.
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby Ruan Stander » Mon Dec 01, 2014 5:26 pm

Congratulations, that's a neat clutch.
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby rolandslf » Fri Dec 19, 2014 8:49 am

Here is a pic of the 6 remaining eggs, of which 3, but possibly 5 will survive, the one egg I don't have too much hope for.

Image

On the other hand, I got home from work yesterday to find that the second female had laid 17 eggs, of which 15 are perfect.

Image

And so we now play the waiting game.
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby Ruan Stander » Fri Dec 19, 2014 11:13 am

Well that's a great clutch.
Don't we just love the waiting game..
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Re: Sperm Retention ????

Postby rolandslf » Sat Dec 20, 2014 9:58 am

I candled the 15 last night, all are showing the spider web of fine veins that indicate fertility.

@Predator, yip the waiting game is a Love/Hate relationship.
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