A Question of Paternity, Please Advise

This season I bred my fire female, Sangria, to my granite stripe 06 male Steve. He was an enthusiastic breeder but had apparently shot blanks because on April 22 Sangria laid 18 slugs and 2 eggs that later went bad. I was heartbroken.

Since she had lost little weight from her "slugfest" and recovered quickly, I decided to try for a second clutch. I bred her with Sniper, a proven male bloodred. I never witnessed a "hook-up" and only once did I see anything that looked like possible "evidence", alongside a mass of feces. (Oh yeah Sangria, that's sure sexy....NOT!! lol) Sniper and Sangria are Steve's parents.

This morning I found her on top of 9 large perfect-looking eggs. I was elated! I thought she was finished as the eggs were in a perfect pile and quite dry looking, but as I went to get an incubation container ready, she laid a 10th!

How positive can I be about the paternity of any offspring that comes from this?

That's cool that she laid a second good clutch! Unfortunately, you really won't know the paternity. If there are no secret hets involved, you'd have produced straight-up bloodreds from either pairing. Even if there are secret hets involved, things will still be murky. Even if you get half a clutch of granites (discovering that Sangria is het anery), unless you know that Sniper ISN'T het for anery, you won't know which possible sire is the real father. If you get no fires from the clutch, the MOST you'll know is that the offspring will be bloods het amel (which you already knew, I'm sure).

I agree, there is really no way to tell. Because of this if I ever use two different males on one female, I only do so if the genetics will make it obvious who the father is. It sounds likely that the second male did the job but I have had females lay bad first clutches and good second clutches without being bred to a second male.

Sangria is het stripe and anery,
Sniper is het amel, stripe and anery,
Steve is their kid, granite stripe het amel.

But it's all good

Since you have all the hets in there that will matchup from both potential fathers, you will not be able to determine who sired the clutch for certain. :shrugs:

D80

Update

When I came home I found her curled around 7 more eggs! Grand total is 17, with no apparent slugs. Some of the eggs are huge,too!

With Sniper as the father I STILL have a 1 in 32 shot for an avalanche stripe....
and since I don't know for sure who the father is (and I need a name beginning with "S"), if there is a keeper female in this bunch I'm probably naming her "Sin". LOL

Where's Maury Povich when you really need him? :nyah:

regards,
jazz

I love summer, and hate to see it end. But this year it's going out with a bang. I have never looked forward to the end of August so much in my life!