Is sperm linear?

Is it always the male who was first in line who fertilizes the eggs? I had a male accidentally lock sometime in august, then the male I wanted to breed had 3+ good locks between September and December. She laid Jan 24 and much to my surprise the babies belong to a male I never paired her with, but they were in a tub together for maybe an hour when I moved houses back in august. I always assumed, sperm being viscous, that anybody in a multi sire pairing had a shot, but I'm kind of floored that this male accidentally fathered the clutch when I intentionally paired a different male 3+ times including right during ovulation. I included I a diagram illustrating different "locks" and wondering if anyone has experienced the same, or has experienced the opposite where the male who had the first lock or few locks didn't get the job done.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/blob...2-b857cc330ec5

To the best of my knowledge, there can be more than one father in a clutch of snakes. The first one may have been shooting blanks, for all you know. When I've bred snakes, I never paired any with more than one male, but this is what I've read in various places.

My "problem" has been that a snake that mated once "accidentally" kept laying fertile eggs from that magic mating for a total of FIVE years (the first year plus four more thereafter)! Snakes are full of surprises. And they're "sneaky"- :rofl:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

To the best of my knowledge, there can be more than one father in a clutch of snakes. The first one may have been shooting blanks, for all you know. When I've bred snakes, I never paired any with more than one male, but this is what I've read in various places.

My "problem" has been that a snake that mated once "accidentally" kept laying fertile eggs from that magic mating for a total of FIVE years (the first year plus four more thereafter)! Snakes are full of surprises. And they're "sneaky"- :rofl:

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Just out of curiousity, what species was that with?

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Originally Posted by Lizrd_boy

Just out of curiousity, what species was that with?

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That was a normal corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus). But she wasn't even the weirdest, overly-reproductive snake I've experienced. As they say, "be careful what you wish for"! :D

Dual sired clutches do happen so nope, can be in any order or both.

Right, I've had dual sired clutches, I'm just kind of floored that this one sneak attack lock months before somehow got the ENTIRE job done 😭

I remember a Snake Discovery video a couple years back where, I think it was garters or bullsnakes, idr some type of colubrid, where one of the babies in the clutch came out as a morph that should've been impossible given the pairing. But the male she was paired with the previous year had the gene involved, so it was reasonably surmised that the female held over sperm from an entire previous year to put in the current batch of offspring.

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Originally Posted by Snagrio

I remember a Snake Discovery video a couple years back where, I think it was garters or bullsnakes, idr some type of colubrid, where one of the babies in the clutch came out as a morph that should've been impossible given the pairing. But the male she was paired with the previous year had the gene involved, so it was reasonably surmised that the female held over sperm from an entire previous year to put in the current batch of offspring.

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Yes, that's another trick that snakes have "up their sleeves". :D