Fertility issues in male peppermint.

I have bred my peppermint male to 2 different females, a buf amel and an anery motley. My amel is a proven breeder of big heavy babies however both clutches he sired were a majority of slugs and 2 to 3 fertile that died a few weeks into development. I've never had this issue and I'm convinced its the male.
Anyone else have any experience as to what might be going on? I know peppermint is an amel cinder but are they hybridized somewhere? He certainly looks different in the face from my others. Why do I have issues with only him?

Sometimes that just happens is all.

Sterility/infertility can happen in any individual that is part of a species that reproduces sexually. Humans can be born infertile. Dogs, cats, birds, lizards, fish, snakes, insects.

I've also heard that temperature can play a part in males fertility. I've seen several corn and python breeders that keep the males on the bottom of a rack so they don't get to warm and cook the sperm.

Would any of that cause developing embryos to die? I just wonder if something isn't genetically compatible.

Weda737 said:

Would any of that cause developing embryos to die? I just wonder if something isn't genetically compatible.

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If overheating the male is the issue, then "yes" that will affect the sperm either by defect or death.
As for incompatibility, Peppermints have been around for quite awhile. The only observed difference has been that the cinder gene seems to act like a sex-linked inheritance. I have personally produced hundreds of animals with Cinder combinations and haven't observed any incompatibility issues with other corn snake genes.
As Shiari stated, sometimes fertility issues happen. They are frustrating to say the least. I would try again this season after taking a careful look at the heating situation. If you get similar results then retire the male as pet quality and find another breeder to take his place.
Good Luck,
Terri

Thank you all. I'm going to try my old snow this spring and see if he has any issues. He is going on 17 years old. Havent bred him in quite a few years but he has always given me good eggs.

Heck, stuff like that just happens. Many moons ago a friend of mine had one of the very first breeding sized blizzard males around and asked me if I wanted to use him in a breeding loan deal. I agreed, and promised him half of every clutch.

Since this was a new thing back then, I bred him to 11 different genetic varieties of females I had available. EVERY SINGE ONE threw slugs from that male. Disappointing, to say the least. And a lesson learned: Don't put all your marbles in one basket with a single male or even a single female.