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Twins

Susan

Susan

Go Ahead, Make My Day!
I have 3 females that have occasionally produced twins (2 snakes, 1 egg). Two of the females are siblings, the third is not related. I've never been able to determine if they are fraternal or identical twins. This year, one of the females gave me 2 sets of twins in the same clutch. The first pair hatched normally, but one twin was much smaller than the other and died shortly after hatching. I tried to compare it to the 3 other hatchlings in the box at that time, but it didn't quite match any of them. My guess is that they were fraternal twins. However, the second set started to hatch normally, but only one hatchling made it part-way out of the egg before I noticed that there was a big problem...it was a "siamese" twin, attached to it's twin at the umbilicus. They shared some intestines and both had some other deformities. I euthanized them (both were alive) shortly after examination. Their markings were identical, those that I could examine (one hatchling's head was deformed with what I would say was hydrocephalus, as well as missing some skull).

Just out of curiosity, has anyone had a pair of identical twins survive? I've had a few fraternal twins survive, but this is my first example of identical twins.
 
Susan..not doubting you...but just thinking,
if you let your eggs dry together and some are under the others...
they may come up through another egg and make it look like two came out. Could this be the reason you have so many twins? Just an idea... Other than that, I'm no help here
 
I think 2 snakes coming from 1 egg would be identical twins. Like you learned in school, 1 sperm + 1 egg that develops into 2 individuals = identical twins.
Technically, I think you could call all the snakes in the clutch fraternal twins - multiple sperm + multiple eggs at the same time = fraternal twins.
 
In birds, eggs may sometimes have 2 yolks and those that are viable will hatch out 2 small fraternal twins. Does anyone know if snakes might lay double-yolked eggs? Susan, perhaps you could candle all future eggs to see how many yolks they have, and how many babies hatch from each egg? Keep us posted, this sure is interesting!
 
There was an incident I read about in the newspaper where this snake at the local zoo (I think it was a Texas Rat Snake) had one egg. When it hatched, they found two snakes. Both lived. They had not at the time checked to see if they were fraternal or identical. You couldn't tell without doing tests since the rat snake wasn't that colorful and pretty much nondiscript. I'm not sure what became of the tests, but they are still alive and well.
 
Susan,

Are these the ones that had pics posted on the Kingsnake forum?
They looked so icky! I can't believe that they were ALIVE!:eek: Strange that you get so many, could it be in the males genetic makeup?(since you said a couple of your females have had them)
Is there such a gene in snakes like in humans?


Clueless........

Colleen
 
If snakes resemble humas in the fact that they have twins then that would mean that both parrents come from a family that can have twins. (Mostlikely)
Question is are you buying your parent snakes from the same breeder? If so then perhaps they might be too related. But then again I am not a biologist or anything it just seems logical.

I know this is a forum about cornsnakes..
My mom use to raise toy poodles and the father it turned out to have deformitys. Nothing noticable but after checking it was there. This happens when the breeder is cheating in the bloodline trying to keep it as pure as possible.

Then again it could be just a act of nature.
 
Hi Susan,
I think that your getting twins is so cool. It's a pity that the conjoined ones were deformed it would have been interesting to see.
Do you have any photos of the eggs and of them hatching?
Do they emerge at the same time?
Are they both male/female or one of each? Do you ever get two headed ones?
I find this all so interesting. Please keep us posted.
Jimmy C.
 
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