Suprise litter in October

[Jeff B]

Found a litter born this morning that was born sometime yesterday. What a big surprise to find a litter born this late in the season. There were 7 healthy babies and 3 stillborn. The female was a yearling erythristic flame 100% het albino. She was getting pretty big towards the end of June, so i put a male erythristic flame from the morh anerythristic in with her and they locked up, and a week later I put the my het silver male in with her and they locked up as well. Later I never really saw her getting that big so I figured she wasn't gravid and I just kinda forgot about the possibility of her being gravid, so I was quite surprised to see babies crawling around this morning. So these babies are definately 50% poss hets for Schuett albino and possible het for Mohr anery or possible het for silver. Looks like 5 of the 7 babies have some degree of erythristic flame, the other two are more black and gray looking, which isn't surprising as both silver hets and anything with Morh anery seem to turn out darker. The het silvers have a distinct look to them, so it will be interesting to see what the two normals look like after a few sheds and a little size to them. Either way these babies have the potiential to produce a new type of snow eastern. I am leaning on that they are from the het silver male as I would have expected more red/orange on them if the erythristic flame Morh anery male is the father, but I really can't be sure. Pictured is the litter, followed by mom and the two possible dads.
http://gartersnakemorph.com/images/octobersurpriselitter.jpg
http://gartersnakemorph.com/images/mom.jpg
http://gartersnakemorph.com/images/males.jpg

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Sweet Jeff! Keep us updated with pics on these.

[guidofatherof5]

Sweet Fall surprise.

[Jeff B]

I will tell you guys, I had to take a major double take when I saw the first baby moving around.....I thought nahwww can't be must be my eyes playing tricks on me...you know how some times you see just the tip of a tail and think..."is that a baby" and 99% of the time the answer is no, well this time the answer was yes, then another baby and another and another like popcorn. Boy was I pleasantly surprised...shocked actually. Even though these babies aren't anything spectacular to look at, this is one of the more important litters of my season from a long term breeding standpoint, this kinda makes my season.

[dieselbaby]

Awesome, congrats on the new babies!

[Chondro788]

Awesome Jeff!!! Let me know when you want to send some of those my way, lol!!!:D

[Eddie]

Congrats

I would agree by looking at them that the het silver is probably the father. I guess time and breeding will tell lol.
Good luck with them
Eddie

[zooplan]

Congratulations,
seems you´ve produced some kind of lottery babies
all the possibillities...
thats too much for my old brain
I think I´ll have to read again:D

[i_heart_sneakie_snakes]

Aw, they are adorable!!! Is it not possible for the males to have each fathered some of the babies??

[katach]

Cute, babies! Congrats!

[infernalis]

Happened to me last year jeff... Congrats.

[Chondro788]

Aw, they are adorable!!! Is it not possible for the males to have each fathered some of the babies??

That is totally possible as well. I have had it happen multiple times with co-dom genes in pythons.

[Jeff B]

It certainly is possible, but probably happens less frequently in garters than in pythons, based on the sperm plug. I am talking about the "real" sperm plug that garters produce to block other males sperm, not what the ball python guys incorrectly refer to as a "sperm plug", which is actually a hemipene shed mixed with a little "fluid", that they also incorrectly use to gage sexual maturity in males.
So with the sperm plug idea it is more likely the 1st male, the ery/flame mohr anery male that did the job, but anything is possible and these babies will have to be bred and proven for the albino gene from mother at minimum anyway, so could be surprise "lottery" babies next generation.

[d_virginiana]

Congrats! That's got to be a great surprise.

[ssssnakeluvr]

Awesome!!! I had a late litter of wanderings last tuesday =)

[tress29]

Awesome!!! I had a late litter of wanderings last tuesday =)

Did you posts pictures and I missed them?!

[PINJOHN]

Even though this is the first year for very many, i have allowed my snakes to breed your post has reminded me of all the times in the past that you first spot that little something moving in the viv and get that excited feeling, could that possibly be!!! yes it is its a baby and then the excitement of counting them, nothing quite like it, congratulation,s Jeff and thanks for a great post

[ssssnakeluvr]

Did you posts pictures and I missed them?!

no...I didnt post pics. can get some pics tomorrow and post =)

[RedSidedSPR]

Nice!