Posted by Dan Johnson on July 12, 1997 at 18:01:46:
In Reply to: fertility and wild-caught males posted by Troy Hibbitts on July 09, 1997 at 18:31:01:
Here are my stats for the april to early may breeding
period: Of 5 wild caught males, 2 were viable and 3 were shooting
blanks. Of 5 captive bred males, one was viable and 4
were shooting blanks. I used the scope to determine this.
2 of the males (1 cb and 1 wc) became viable later in the
year during the time some females were ovulating for a
second clutch. One cb male continued to shoot blanks. Several
other males were not bred again, so their viability was not
determined. This was around the June 1st.
Ideas for improving fertility? I'm thinking getting males really
warm (82 daytime) during early spring plus heavy feeding might
get them to start producing sperm earlier. I'm also thinking
about bringing my males out of hibernation a month before
the females.
: Of the ten alterna that I have had appear gravid, five
: have produced infertile eggs, while of the remaining
: five, one has produced a good clutch and the others appear
: to be well on their way to doing so (each remaining female
: is much heavier and has much more obvious eggs in her than
: the ones that threw slugs). Anyway, the common thread here
: is that the females that threw slugs were all bred by 3 (and
: in one case, 4) year old, captive bred males, while the
: remaining females were bred by wild-caught males (in all
: but one case, older, mature adults, with the exception being
: a wc97 24"male). While I don't have a scope to check
: sperm counts, it seems that the older, wild males in my
: collection are producing good sperm, while the young cb
: ones are not. I wish I could compare old wc vs old cb
: snakes, but none of my cb are older than 4.5 yrs.
: Questions:
: (1) how many of you have noticed similar phenomenon?
: (2) is there anything to be done regarding sperm production,
: besides allowing the young males to mature?
: Troy