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Questions of genetics as related to infertility.

ZombieElite

ZombieElite

New member
At a recent reptile show in my area I spoke with a breeder about Tessera corn snakes. I had recently acquired a male tessera for a breeding project. I told the breeder this and he wished me good luck because, according to him, many male tesseras have had problems with infertility.

Can anyone verify this claim? I'd be terribly sad if my beautiful male tessera was likely infertile because he has the tessera gene.
 
I've never heard of that. I have four male tesseras. Well, breeding age. Two bred successfully, and a third is going to try this year. he's only two, but he weighs enough. Just waiting for the female to get in the mood.
 
Nanci said:
I've never heard of that. I have four male tesseras. Well, breeding age. Two bred successfully, and a third is going to try this year. he's only two, but he weighs enough. Just waiting for the female to get in the mood.
Click to expand...

Thanks Nanci,

What size do you start breeding your males at? I have a female that just hit 350g so I will attempt to breed her next season, but my male isn't quite large enough yet.
 
I have one breeding age Tessera and this is his first year breeding. He's already locked up with at least one of his ladies a few times, so we'll have to see in a few months. But I've never heard of Tesseras having particular fertility problems. Back when they were a lot more expensive and people were breeding them for the first time, I know there was some bitching that Murphy was messing with those pairings a lot, getting small clutches or large clutches with only 2 or 3 Tesseras out of 20 plus eggs. But that does seem to happen a lot with the new and most wished for. Haven't heard much like that in the last 3 years or so ...

My breeding age male is an early 2013 and he weighs around 250-280 grams, I haven't weighed him in awhile. I was a little worried he might not know what to do but he seems to have gotten the idea quickly enough. I've heard of successfully using 16 or 18 month old males in the 100 plus gram range but I've also heard of individual males that don't successfully bred until they are over 3 years old, so it does depend on the individual snake and they can mature at differing rates.
 
I have _heard_ that males are ready to breed once they are 140 grams or bigger. I haven't tried one that small. 200 grams/two years old- he should be good to go. It wouldn't be harmful to breed the male too young, he just wouldn't be able to figure it out if he wasn't ready.

Actually, I purchased some boot keys corns that came to me at about 80 grams, and the female was gravid- so one of her similar-sized clutch mates had to have done it. BUT out of five eggs, three didn't hatch, one baby was deformed, and one wouldn't eat, ever. So- I don't count that as a successful breeding.
 
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