Temps and humidity affecting pattern

[RegiusCo]

The rumor out there is that African breeders are purposely manipulating temps and humidity in order to hatch those wacky patterned CH imports we are seeing every year.

We all have a few dinkers hoping to prove out, if this is the case, we should be hatching out many nice normals.

Any thoughts?

[JoshJP7]

Ive never bred my snakes yet so my opinion really doesnt count but it may be plausable?? People will do anything to make an extra buck and there are quite a few of the odd looking snakes out there... My Myth Busters answer is... Plausable

[Jerhart]

...exactly what it is....a rumor. There has been much debate on wether or not temp. fluctuation during incubation affects hatchling pattern and mutation, and if it does, to what extent.

...and if there is a guy over there doing this, and it IS affecting his results...what can ya do about it?

[NickMyers03]

my eggs incubated at 94 degrees for the first 30 days. they all look normal and dont have some of these wacked out patterns or melted patterns that you see in some CH ones...

[nevohraalnavnoj]

Isn't it alligators that can change the sex of their babies by incubating the eggs a couple degrees cooler or warmer? Has anyone experimented at all with BPs??

JonV

[Jerhart]

Isn't it alligators that can change the sex of their babies by incubating the eggs a couple degrees cooler or warmer? Has anyone experimented at all with BPs??

JonV

yar....leopard geckos too...

...doesn't work for BP

[NickMyers03]

Isn't it alligators that can change the sex of their babies by incubating the eggs a couple degrees cooler or warmer? Has anyone experimented at all with BPs??

JonV

so far it hasnt affected bps, that is from this same quetion that has been asked for years

[daniel1983]

Isn't it alligators that can change the sex of their babies by incubating the eggs a couple degrees cooler or warmer? Has anyone experimented at all with BPs??

There are tons of reptiles that lay TSD (temperature sex dependant) eggs. Some lizards and turtles. Some the higher temps cause more males, some the higher temps cause more females. Most TSD reptiles are shallow nesters too.

However, I have not heard of a single snake with TSD.

People have experiemented with incubating other reptiles for tempeature sex dependancy too. Bearded dragons are not TSD; however, if incubated at high temperatures, all eggs will generally hatch genetic males which appear to be female. "Hot" females is a term commonly used when this occurs. They are almost always aggressive and nonreproductive.

No one experiements with ball pythons. People are too worried about how to mix and match mutations to focus on actual research....not to mention varying from the norm with incubation can be risky and really hurt the wallet of someone expecting to sell the offspring.

[JenH]

No one experiements with ball pythons. People are too worried about how to mix and match mutations to focus on actual research....not to mention varying from the norm with incubation can be risky and really hurt the wallet of someone expecting to sell the offspring.

That's not really true - the Barkers have done a lot of research and they mention some of it in their book.....

[daniel1983]

That's not really true - the Barkers have done a lot of research and they mention some of it in their book.....

....ha ha....two people?....out of how many people that keep ball pythons??

You would think with ball pythons being one of the most common captive reptiles that there would be all sorts of research being done with them by ALL sorts of people.

The Barkers do great stuff, but they are part of a very small minority.