Quote Originally Posted by wolfy-hound
I hadn't mentioned it here, but I bred my spider male Sam this year.
The clutches were as follows.
Clutch 1: 4 eggs, 4 formed spider babies. 1 died in egg. 3 live hatchlings.
Clutch 2: 3 eggs, 2 molded, 1 formed spider baby - died in egg. No live babys.
Clutch 3: 3 eggs, 1 molded, 2 formed spider babies - both died in egg. No live babies.

All "formed babies" were virtually ready to climb out of the egg, but simply died without emerging(or died right after emerging). This is not early fetuses, only fully formed baby snakes. No normals were hatched OR seen in eggs cut open.
ALL hatchlings produced(live or dead) in 3 clutches were spiders out of Sam. There was a HIGH mortality rate in the eggs. Was this the incubation? Was it due to care of females? Was it the father? I don't know. I will be breeding him to other females this coming season, and will be looking forward to seeing what hatches.
I feel that 3 clutches in one season, from 3 unrelated normal females all having all spiders with no normals is UNUSUAL at least.
I'm not claiming anything on Sam. I am wondering if there is some problem with the genetics, since I had a high rate of mortaility on otherwise good looking hatchings. The three live babies were poor eaters, and I will be keeping them until I am certain they are healthy before they will be offered for sale or trade.
I spoke with a few people about Sam and the odds. I just didn't post anything here yet, but seeing as the conversation is about the same idea, here is my personal info.
Were all three of these clutches spider x spider breedings? That's the only way to possibly produce a homozygous spider. The high mortality rate in your clutches if they were from spider x normal breeding doesn't have anything to do with the spider gene.