Not the best breeding season...

Hey Everyone,

i just been thinking that this breeding season hasn't been the best for some breeders... i have only been breeding for 2 yrs and always been reading a lot of post every yr. My opinion is i think this yr in breeding hasn't been the best... a lot of breeder has lost eggs, lost egg with babies inside, kinks, or died after exiting. Curious to hear what some ppl have had in their clutches this season..
For Me:

1 unfertile egg
1 kinked pewter.:(

I thought the season was going to be a total bust. I had to move in to care for my mother last Sept. running home every three days to care for my animals, so pairing was sporadic to say the least.

I managed to get 1 10 egg clutch due to pip in a few days so I can't complain, also purchased 2 dinkers who may be gravid.

oh ok, sounds good for u. hope u have healthy pippers in a few days...

Here is our stats from this year.

11 - parings
5 - clutches laid
5 - ovulations (as of today)
13 - slugs
4 - infertile eggs
1 - dead embryo (day 20 or so)
21 - good eggs
0 - dead fully developed hatchlings

So all in all not a great year. But I'm definitely not complaining. Our last two clutches were pretty nice.

Was hoping to produce some female pastels and bees, what I got out of 2 clutches was.
6 eggs, 3 normals and 3 spiders
7 eggs, 2 eggs died late into incubation 2 normals, 1 male pastel another spider and a kinked and fused female bee that got the freezer.
Horrible first season.
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../6/5/4/bpn.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GameBred

Was hoping to produce some female pastels and bees, what I got out of 2 clutches was.
6 eggs, 3 normals and 3 spiders
7 eggs, 2 eggs died late into incubation 2 normals, 1 male pastel another spider and a kinked and fused female bee that got the freezer.
Horrible first season.
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../6/5/4/bpn.jpg

---

Figures that happens to your best possible outcome.

Sorry about the bee, she was a looker

Yeah, real kick in the teeth. I figure the odd gods owe me a favor next season so, keeping my chin up:gj:

Two clutches,
1st: 8 eggs, all went full term with no problems.
2nd: 5 eggs, 2 went bad 2-3 weeks into incubation, same clutch gave me a little kinked normal as well.

14 - pairings
4 - clutches laid
22 - total eggs laid
3 - slugs
4 - eggs that molded and didn't make it
15 - eggs that made it through incubation
14 - healthy hatchlings
1 - dead fully developed hatchlings (seems to have drowned maybe)

Ended up with:
1 bumblebee
5 pastels
2 spiders
3 butters
3 normals

Nope not a great year.. Must be in the water..we paired

20 females that copulated at least 3 times with a male..

So far 2 clutchs have hatched one was totally slugs an we3 have about 4 more we are waiting on.. so 7 out of 20 is piss poor in my book.

4 females bred

2 ovulations witnessed

2 clutches laid, 8 and 9 eggs

17 fertile eggs

9 healthy babies

8 still cooking and looking good.

Hoped for 5 and only got 3 clutches. One clutch went bad and I was going to not mention it, but...The babies(6) all had terribly short bottom jaws. I asked the local exotic vet and he said it would be best to cull them. I emailed a breeder to ask if he thought it was from incubation or genetic. No response and I decided to not push the subject, etc..
After dealing with my wifes and my feelings about it, I chose to cull them. Not a good experience for me and I don't plan on pairing up that couple again.
If anyone has experienced the short jaw babies before and has ideas, please pm me with any solutions, etc.

Bred seven females.

One reabsorbed, two didn't take, four laid.

First clutch - 7 eggs - all hatched to term and healthy
Second clutch - 7 eggs - 2 had twisted umbilicus and didn't survive
Third clutch - 7 beautiful eggs - no veins, put in the incubator "just in case" - rotted a month later
Fourth clutch - 6 of the ugliest mottled eggs I've ever seen. Due to hatch in about 2 weeks.

13 females bred
10 have laid, one more just ovulated today
No slugs until this last clutch a few days ago, got 2 eggs and 9 slugs from that one -- total of 60 eggs laid so far
First three clutches are out and healthy except for one hatchling from the first clutch that died of hard belly

Been a pretty good year for me so far. :gj:

sorry on everyone loss. i gotta agree there must have been something in the water this breeding season. next yr should be better.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jason Bowden

Hoped for 5 and only got 3 clutches. One clutch went bad and I was going to not mention it, but...The babies(6) all had terribly short bottom jaws. I asked the local exotic vet and he said it would be best to cull them. I emailed a breeder to ask if he thought it was from incubation or genetic. No response and I decided to not push the subject, etc..
After dealing with my wifes and my feelings about it, I chose to cull them. Not a good experience for me and I don't plan on pairing up that couple again.
If anyone has experienced the short jaw babies before and has ideas, please pm me with any solutions, etc.

---

What was the pairing that produced all lower jaw issues?

Well beside it being a late breeding season so far so good... :gj:

pairrings -7
clutches laid -7
total eggs-43
slugs-2

1st clutch 6 eggs (albino x spider) 1 het no eyes/ 1 het with shorter lower jaw/ one spider with slight shorter lower jaw/ all the rest normal and healthy. The 2 with shorter jaws have feed 1 so far the one with no eyes has not yet..

2nd clutch 6 eggs - all hatched healthy
3rd clutch 8 eggs- all hatched healhty (bonus this was my fire blast clutch yielding 2 Fire Blasts :banana:)
4th clutch hatching now 7eggs - all healthy and a double daddy clutch resulting (spinner blast, lemon blast,bee,mojave,normal, spider and last one not out yet but poss another normal.

3 clutches still incubating but so far been pretty good season, sorry to hear others aren't doing so well... :(

This year was really weird. In the South we had lots of weird weather. I've had an abnormal amount of slugs. I have hatched out some cool stuff, but not the year I was hoping for. Still have two clutches left to hatch and three clutchs on breeder loans. Mainly Calico morphs left in the incubator. I do have one YB x Albino clutch left, but the female threw three slugs and left me one good egg. My Albino Ivory project is going to be pushed back now.

Matt

1st year breeding balls; coulda been better, coulda been worse.

Bred three females with >5 copulations observed (paired a few more with <2 copulations)

1 resorbed
2 laid
11 eggs total, no slugs

3 eggs went bad
4 eggs contained fully-developed dead babies -- I had a very hard time keeping the incubator from getting to an abnormally hot and dry level, which I believe caused the deaths -- clearly something I have to work very hard to rectify before next season!
4 eggs hatched with healthy babies (no deformities despite ridiculous temp. fluctuations)

So, coulda been better ... Coulda been worse. At least I know what I need to correct before the upcoming season.

Hey there, I thought i would chime in...

My first year breeding

Het Ghost Female ( 1 ) x Spider Het Ghost = 9 Slugs
Het Ghost Female ( 2 ) x Spider Het Ghost = 11 eggs - Day 54 in the cooker.

Come on HoneyBee :)

Scuba

Hope the they all hatch :) Don't forget photos :gj:

Current stats so far:

14 total clutches
12 hatched, 2 still incubating (both due Sept 1).
91 hatchlings so far.
6 slug/bad eggs so far.
1 failed to absorb yolk (but seems fine).
0 deformities
0 full term dead in egg.
0 females slugged out
3 bred females failed to lay (one first-timer).

I would say it's been a pretty darned good year.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jason Bowden

If anyone has experienced the short jaw babies before and has ideas, please pm me with any solutions, etc.

---

I had a deformity last year, with missing eye and elongated jaw bone on one side of the face.

I hate to say it, and it may see harsh, but I think you should repeat the exact same pairing next year.
You need to know if it is genetic. If it is, then possibly neither parent should be bred--they could be carrying recessives for this trait. If it is just an incubation issue, you need to know that too, so you know that the parent animals are clear of gene defects.

It might seem terrible to have to possibly put down another clutch, but the price for not doing so is that the genes that may have caused this could be spread through your collection, or other peoples' if you sell offspring from the parents--popping up again when chance pairings bring animals that carry it together.

Whenever I get a deformity, I repeat the pairing to make sure it was developmental.

^^^What he said^^^

I also agree with WingedWolf.

It's the philosophy of "don't repeat that breeding and you shouldn't see it pop up again" that has been (partially) responsible for the maintenance of a lot of crappy recessive defects in domestic animal breeds.

(Not that I'm accusing you of doing anything wrong -- it's a logical conclusion to make, but unfortunately not necessarily the correct one if it is in fact hereditary and recessive.)

Bred 3 females. 2 laid.

Lesser x Butter - 4 eggs, 1.0 BEL, 1.1 Lesser/Butter 1.0 normal
Lesser x Spider - 5 eggs, 1.0 Lesserbee, 0.2 Lessers, 0.1 Spider 0.1 normal

Odds were right on...wish my YB would have laid...but certainly can't complain. :)

My first clutch, I got 5 eggs, only one good one :( .. halfway through incubation though!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jsmorphs2

Here is our stats from this year.

11 - parings
5 - clutches laid
5 - ovulations (as of today)
13 - slugs
4 - infertile eggs
1 - dead embryo (day 20 or so)
21 - good eggs
0 - dead fully developed hatchlings

So all in all not a great year. But I'm definitely not complaining. Our last two clutches were pretty nice.

---

Seems like the season is ending pretty well. We just had a mojave and a normal ovulate. Hopping for viable clutches. They both had +/- 8 follicles.

So out of 11 pairings we have had 7 ovys.

8 pairings (all visually copulated)
4 clutches laid
19 total eggs
0 slugs
4 fully formed dead in egg (1 normal, 2 pastels, 1 pewter)
1 died after hatching and not absorbing yolk (super pastel)
1 hatched and didnt absorb yolk, still alive for now (spider)
2 weird maggot infestation discussed in another thread (normal, spider)
8 healthy hatchlings (counting the questionable spider)

result:
1 cinnamon
1 pastel
1 spider
5 normals

Bred two females - Both Normals bred to a Bee male and a Spinner male.

First clutch - 10 eggs - 4 Normals, 2 Spiders, 1 Pastel, 2 Bees, and 1 Spinner. Two Sire Clutch! :D She also retained an egg that had to be drained and she passed it about a month after she laid.

Second clutch - 6 eggs - 2 Normals, 2 Pastels, 1 Spider, and 1 Bee.