Breeding question

[Susan]

I plan on breeding my female aneryth stripe het amel to my male amel stripe in 2003. She is a well proven breeder. The male, although big enough to start breeding, is a 2001 hatchling. I would also like to breed this female to my male butter, also well proven.

I'm thinking, since I would hate to end up with a clutch of slugs if the male amel stripe really isn't old enough to produce well, to breed the female to both males at the same time. I would let the amel stripe make the first mating, but let the butter mate with her the next day, followed again by the amel stripe after a day of rest for all snakes, and then the butter again. This way, I'm fairly guaranteed that the eggs will be fertilized by somebody. Does this sound like a valid plan?

Since I'm 99.9% sure the butter is not het for stripe or motley, I should be able to tell who the father is once the eggs hatch. My major question is...could some eggs, in the same clutch, be fertilized by one male and others by the second male? Or is the "open window" when the eggs can be fertized too short to allow additional sperm a chance? Would I have a better chance of having a "mixed" clutch if both males were allowed to breed the female on the same day? Would the female allow 2 matings the same day, and would this be too stressful for her?

[tkbalt]

Yes, one clutch can have more than one father, so you could end up with a mixed clutch by doing this. Some eggs can be fertilized by one dad, and others in the same clutch by another.

[Susan]

Thank you for your reply. I think I'll attempt for the female to mate with both males during a 24 hour period and hope she doesn't get too stressed.

[CAcornguy]

It is definetley possible to have babies from both snake dads. A female can actually hold a males sperm inside her until she is ready to fertilize her eggs. Pretty cool. I learned this in Bill and Kathy Love's corn snake manual, which I would highly reccomend every Corn owner get by the way. -Don:p