Hey guys, woke up to my biggest female Popcorn (a butter) laying. She sadly only had 2 good eggs out of the 21 she laid, makes me wonder if I did something incorrectly in breeding her as my other female just had a 19 egg clutch with only 7 good.
5 Likes
She’s beautiful!
I’m sorry that this clutch didn’t turn out as you hoped. Murphy is busting your chops key pretty hard. I know it’s cold comfort, but I am pretty sure everyone who’s been at this a while has had a really rough time sometime. I know I have. It’s really hard to say what may have caused your females’ lower ferility this year. And, although I know it doesn’t feel this way now, it may never happen again.
There are some factors you can look into to try and figure it out.
- I’ve seen some studies indicating higher viv temperatures can negatively impact fertility. (I don’t have one handy, but I believe they referenced temps above 86 but below 90.) Might this have happened?
- Did both of these females have the same mate? If so, how often was he being bred?
- How old are the adults?
- How often were you feeding the females? Did you shift their feeding schedules as time to breed neared?
- What indicators did you use to determine time to try breeding?
I know you’re running through all of this in your head. The hard truth is that you may not be able to isolate a cause. The happier truth is that you may very well get completely fertile clutches next year from the same pairs.
I’m sorry. This is miserable.
5 Likes
Aw, sorry to hear it, that sucks.
1 Like
- I keep all my corn snakes at 83 degrees.
- They had different mates and the female coral snow was paired 4 times and the butter was paired 3 times, maybe I should of paired them more? The male Azalea was paired to had 3 females this year and I may have not paired him enough to her becaudr of that, how many pairings do u go for, and do u pair one male to multiple females?
- Unknown ages.
- The females were being fed every 5 days, I was feeding them like this before brumation too.
- For the coral snow I put them together after she shed ( only one that was not brumated) and the butter shed right after brumation and then I paired her.
Thank u for all the help🙂
I can only hope the 5 females I have that still need to lay give me better cluctchs, theres allways next year though😊
2 Likes
- Sounds perfect. I can’t inane that any would have a problem because of that.
- This one depends if a lot of factors, and different people have do things differently. Additionally, the snakes themselves sometimes have their own ideas about what they will or won’t do at a given time, or with a given partner. Many breeders aim for 5 pairings. I try for at least 3, more if possible. Of course, theoretically once is enough. Current recommendations are for a 3 day rest period between breedings for males. This isn’t always feasible, I’ve found. I try for 3 days but have put a male with a female after only 2 days. There’s some belief that males may produce all their sperm for the next season toward the end of the previous summer or fall. In any case, the ejaculate has other components besides spermatozoa so a rest period can be useful there. As far as male:female ratio, 1:3 or 1:4 are not unusual and 1:5 is not unheard of with a mature, healthy male.
- Ok then.
- Sounds just right to me.
- Also sounds just right to me.
I do hope your other females have better results for you. Next year is almost bound to be different. You’ll have the whole summer and fall (even winter if you choose not to brumate) to be sure everybody’s nutrition is optimal and their body condition is good. Fingers crossed for the rest of your season!
1 Like