Sperm retention etc.

[Zephyr]

I just realized that all 5 of my eastern garters, born of the same parent, look entirely different. This made me think: Do female garters utilize only one "packet" of sperm from one male, or use all the sperm they get from each copulation in a mating ball?

[CrazyHedgehog]

hmmmm, no idea... I know they can retain sperm, so does it mix?

[adamanteus]

My understanding is that once a successful mating has taken place, there can be no further matings. The male leaves behind a waxy plug inside the female, this prevents other males following him.

[enigma200316]

interesting to say the least.............

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

based on the fact that I have raised two garters up from babies and bred them for the first time, and seeing such a wide variety of color and pattern in the clutch, I would say it's a pretty normal thing for them to have differences even with the same parents.

but hey, my mom and dad had three chilren, and we sure as heck don't look the same

i think that sometimes we as humans sometimes forget that animals even in the same species are quite capable of producing offspring of varied looks just as we are. It's like the deer that come to our backyard at the feeder. There is a select group of 9 doe that always come. To one person... they all look exactly the same. but to my family.. every one of them is very different looking and is recognizable in the group.

[adamanteus]

I would say it's a pretty normal thing for them to have differences even with the same parents.

Absolutely. I have Garter siblings here that are wildly different!

[zooplan]

My understanding is that once a successful mating has taken place, there can be no further matings. The male leaves behind a waxy plug inside the female, this prevents other males following him.

The plug that was left by a successfull male only works for a few days, when the female mates again most (all) of the old sperms will be "killed", so normally only the freshest sperms will fertilize the eggs.

[Snake lover 3-25]

when mine had babies some of them were green, aome were dark and one, the one that i currently have was orange... also some had bright stripes and defined markings and there were 2 that had no stripes and very undefined markings... i wish i could have kept them all....

[anji1971]

Well, just take a look at our thread about Easterns -- the variety is endless, so it's only logical that in any litter you'd have the potential for many different looking snakes. I wish my Dojo had had more than just one baby.........I would have loved to see what would have showed up. As it is, I got a carbon copy of the mother, with only slightly brighter yellows.