Virgin Females

[Andrew Larson]

Do virgin females usually lay decent clutches? Or do they have high infertility rates?

[ScubaDiver007]

Personally - I think its more maturity, size, weight.. Just my initial thoughts. I wouldnt think it would have anything to do with if she was a virgin or not. I have a record card of a female that was breed at 4 years old, over 2500 grams and laid 8 eggs.

[Andrew Larson]

Cause I got two virgin females creeping up on 3000 grams. Hoping they lay big clutches.

[ScubaDiver007]

Niceeee!!! My 3200 gram female ( het ghost ) just gave me 11 smoking white eggs.. I breed her with my Spider het ghost. They are 10 days in the incubator.. Come on honey bee's.

[loonunit]

Yeah, a friend's virgin 2006 female was almost 2500 grams this winter, and produced eight huge eggs with no slugs.

Now I'm debating whether I should wait on my 2007 and 2008 females--mine are just barely at 1000 grams right now. I can probably get them up to size by October, but maybe I'd get better results if I wait a year?

[Oxylepy]

Virgins are good for one thing, sacrifice. Whether your snake it a virgin or not should have no bearing over their ability to reproduce. Size seems to be the biggest factor.

[ScubaDiver007]

Yeah I am definitely a believer in waiting.. I have a pied female that I am dying to breed she is at 1825 now.. but I keep telling myself wait wait wait.. LOL.. she is a picky eatter too. Will only eat ASF's.. Taking me forever and a day to get her weight up.

[MGOBLUE]

Niceeee!!! My 3200 gram female ( het ghost ) just gave me 11 smoking white eggs.. I breed her with my Spider het ghost. They are 10 days in the incubator.. Come on honey bee's.

Would breeding a 0.1 spider het ghost to a 1.0 ghost have better chances at producing a honeybee then the 0.1 het ghost to 1.0 spider het ghost?

[Oxylepy]

Would breeding a 0.1 spider het ghost to a 1.0 ghost have better chances at producing a honeybee then the 0.1 het ghost to 1.0 spider het ghost?

Yes. But sex doesnt matter (as long as they're opposite sexes ). With the ghost you have a 100% chance of the offspring getting that gene from that parent, the other parent you have a 50% chance of getting said ghost. Thus 50% of the offspring would be ghosts (50% of those would be spiders, thus 25% chance of honeybee).

With the het ghosts you have a 50% of getting that gene from each parent, thats 25% of being a ghost, then another 50% of getting spider, thus 12.5% of honeybee.

[MGOBLUE]

Yes. But sex doesnt matter (as long as they're opposite sexes ). With the ghost you have a 100% chance of the offspring getting that gene from that parent, the other parent you have a 50% chance of getting said ghost. Thus 50% of the offspring would be ghosts (50% of those would be spiders, thus 25% chance of honeybee).

With the het ghosts you have a 50% of getting that gene from each parent, thats 25% of being a ghost, then another 50% of getting spider, thus 12.5% of honeybee.

Thanks a bunch, answered my question perfectly. I am asking because I have a 1.1 ghost, as well as 0.2 het ghosts. I was going to add a 0.1 spider het ghost and breed my male to her. I am having an impossible time at finding a 0.1 spider het ghost. I have seen two 1.0 spider het ghosts on Kingsnake which I could just take and breed to my 0.2 het ghosts. I am thinking waiting for that female spider het ghost is the path I should take. What do you think?