reduced fertility/fecundity among morphs?

[chrisv]

I was wondering if anyone has either noticed anecdotally or kept sufficient records to notice a decrease in either the rate of successful locks or the number of eggs per clutch in any of the commonly maintained mutations.

I am also wondering if anyone has had any experience with crosses of mutant strains that result in infertile or are otherwise have issues. One biological example of how this might happen would be if proteins encoded by two genes functioned in the same biological pathway. This is one possible basis of the multiple mutations that can lead to leucistic snakes when crossed-- so the biological phenomenon of mutations in multiple genes with distinct phenotypes contributing to an independent phenotype is not an unfamiliar one.

Finally, I am wondering if anyone has noticed decreased fertility or fecundity in homozygous recessive snakes of any commonly maintained strain. Do homozygous x homozygous clown, albino or pied matings tend to result in fewer successful mating attempts or smaller clutches?

If any of this isn't clear let me know and i can rephrase.

Thanks!!
Chris

[RellesReptiles]

As far as infertility? The desert gene seems to render females infertile (they either throw all slugs or become eggbound). I haven't heard anything about less eggs per clutch with other genes.
There are several widely accepted "lethal combo" morphs out there as well. The super woma (the "pearl") is a white snake that usually doesn't survive to hatching, and otherwise not much longer than that. Super champagnes are similar I believe. There is also much debate about the spider being a lethal super (it's recently been found to be incomplete dominant since it is allelic to blackhead but with spider blackhead x spider blackhead there are no "super spiders" produced). However, nobody has documented a significant percentage of dead eggs in spider x spider pairings, so it's an interesting gene... However, it also seems to mirror the Jaguar gene in carpet pythons (major pattern reduction linked with neurological issues) and jag x jag pairings can produce white snakes that don't survive, or more dead eggs.
Recessive breedings, the only thing I have noticed is that albino x albino pairings seem to throw higher rates of deformities than most other pairings, but I don't have statistics to back that up. Just something I've picked up on in the last few years. Perhaps it's more of an inbreeding issue than a gene issue? Who knows.

[dr del]

I think visual caramel females are supposed to have low fertility/ breeding success?

[RellesReptiles]

Almost forgot about caramels! They also have a higher tendency for kinking and all that. Breeding caramel x caramel is generally not advisable.. haha

[chrisv]

Thanks!

Any issues with pieds/pied combos?

[RellesReptiles]

Not that I'm aware. Pied seems to be a pretty strong gene. I know plenty of people who breed pied x pied and I haven't seen any issues with it.

[CORBIN911]

Pieds are just sometimes "lazy"