I don’t know if any of these scenarios could apply here but figured it might be worth a brainstorm.
If you’ve been staying with the same rodent supplier, could they have changed their rats’ diet? Or could they be using the same diet, but the company producing that diet have changed their formula?
Could it be their water? Maybe your city/municipality changed how they treat it and there’s some sort of contaminant now that there wasn’t there before?
Could it be some sort of cleaning product? Again, something like a changed formula?
I don’t even know how you’d go about confirming or eliminating any of the above possibilities or even how you’d definitively tie them to this seasons fertility issues, but if there’s a cause, I hope you’re able to identify and fix it, and if it’s just bad luck, I hope you have better luck next year!
I am convinced that a solid 20-30% of “luck” with breeding animals is entirely outside of our control, regardless of species. While we have domesticated many species of animals to varying degrees, they can sense a lot of environmental things that we can’t and it definitely influances behavior and reproduction. We see it with ball pythons locking up during low pressure systems before storms, dogs pooping in alignment with the earth’s electromagnetic poles and goats/sheep/cattle delivering their babies during storms/cold fronts. With the extreme heat waves that have been hitting part of the country, bizzare winter storms this past year, and prediction of a more active hurricane season, it makes me wonder if some regional weather/environmental effect caused them to slug out. That doesn’t explain why the breeding loan snakes had healthier clutches though
I’ve heard a lot of bummer stories this year. It seems like a drought year in the west, overall, and regardless of their captive status, many snake species seem to respond to general environmental conditions, at least in my anecdotal experience. Best hope for improved luck as the year goes on.
I’m pretty sure his husbandry is solid enough to skip this question. Maybe a personal prejudice, but my sense is @t_h_wyman is a solid keeper, ball pythons aren’t what I’d consider advanced, though they may not be best kept by beginners… I think t_h probably has more experience breeding snakes contained in his left little toenail than most of us have as mature, whole, adult humans.
T_H_Wyman…Don’t give up! I only got two clutches of 5 eggs each that looked good…BUT my first clutch one egg has gone bad and my 2nd clutch all five eggs went bad. So only 4 eggs for the entire season of at least 20 breeder females. Nobody wanted to give me anything.
It’s the year, put it behind you and focus on feeding for next season. I wish you the best!
Yes I am always appreciative of Travis’ knowledge and expertise, and yet seeing issues with infertility I’m going to ask the first thing that comes to mind. He is posting here because he’s wise to question himself and his own methods, as any keeper should regardless of tenure when something goes wrong. Im sure his temps are spot on but it doesn’t hurt to eliminate that possibility. There also exist differences between the “accepted industry standards” for temps, temps that will allow snakes to thrive, and temps that foster perfect fertility - in my own humble opinion.
Possible. But if he did then I would expect to hear about issues from other locals that use him. I would also expect for him to be seeing problems as well, and I am not hearing/seeing either of those things.
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I appreciate you speaking up for me @jeremyjacob But, as @ballpythons9 rightly assesses, I take no offense to him asking. No matter how long you have been in this game and how much you think you know, there is always room to learn more and check yourself
My temps are all within the parameters I have always kept them. I do not have the exact thermostat settings memorized for each of the individual racks (that is what cheat-sheet note cards taped to the thermostat are for LOL) but they are all set to provide a 30-31 hotspot that I check weekly with my tempgun. Heat cycles daily, ramping down over the course of four hours at night to 27 and then ramping back up again in the morning over the same time frame. Ambient in the room fluctuates from 22-26 depending on the season.
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Oh, I already have the pairs for next season plotted out, but it will be the '22 season earliest before any of the girls that laid this season go back into the rotation as I will not breed a girl two years consecutive
I mean… I witnessed locks for each of these clutches total dud clutches twelve and eight time, respectively. And most of those were 24 hour in duration or longer
Those temps sound pretty good as far as a range of accepted values… I might hypothesize since everything else seems in order, that those night time/seasonal fluctuations may be significant enough to throw things off??
Again, very limited experience but (knock on wood) I’ve had very few slugs out of maybe 20 clutches so far - I keep things cooler than most (sorry I’m gonna use Fahrenheit lol), hot spot 83-84F for males and females during breeding, Max 86-87F only for Gravid females post OV, ambient temps 77-79. Consistent temps with very minor change (+/- 1 degree) throughout the year - with seasonal indicators being barometric pressure changes, change in food available, and 30 minutes more simulated daylight in the summer (centered around a 12 hour day 12 hour night to mirror light cycles in Africa near the equator).
Still your temps are pretty close to this range, and a huge portion of this is luck no doubt. Please keep us updated and wishing you all the best.
I don’t think so. High temperatures cause infertility issues. I’m doubting night time cooling would affect fertility. I will say I also keep my males cooler than most because I believe hotter temps causes decreased fertility in males.
If the swing were something new that I had introduced this season then I would agree with you, however, this is the same cycle I have used since I moved into this house four years ago and I never had the issue before so it would seem odd if the swing were creating problems now.
At the start of my breeding cycle (Oct)I feed medium rats every other week. Nov, Dec, Jan they get a fasting period and then back to medium rats every other week Feb through April. In May I switch down to small rats, mostly because I generally know who is going to go the distance by that point and they are mostly committed (and those that may be lagging are still bulked up enough that a switch down to a small rat is not going to cause a massive loss in nutrition)
But, as