My albino flame exploded!

[snakeman]

Twenty plus babies downstairs.i don't know why I am getting such good numbers.my females seemed like they barely ate this year.can't wait till my canadian gos .that snake is huge!

[ConcinusMan]

Wow. Congrats. I think you're just too used to getting low numbers. Sounds like you're getting "normal" numbers now. Any theories at all as to why?

[snakeman]

When I started breeding garters I was only putting them down for 6 weeks to two months.Now I do like 3 - 4 months.This female bred with my het albino erythristic.I got 16 hets and 8 albino.Most of the albinos are very heavily patterned.Some look erythristic.Not too many flames though.NO DEFORMED BABIES!

[ConcinusMan]

Will be interesting to see what happens with my first concinnus litter this year. I didn't brumate the female at all, but then the male was down for 13 weeks. She's getting enormous.

That's a fantastic litter you have there, nice going!

[drache]

congrats
that's a very nice size litter

[gregmonsta]

Congrats

[MasSalvaje]

Congrats are in order............but I can't officially send them until we see pics!

-Thomas

[Jeff B]

Congrats on a nice litter Tom!
Interesting, so you brumated longer this year and your females didn't eat much following brumation, and that is translating to bigger litters? How many litters total has that held true compared to last year and were they the same pairings you are compairing or differnent animals?
So when did you start brumation, September? And when did you start your breeding, to be having babies this early?
I read a scientific paper which stated that their findings were that how low a drop in temp had more effect than the length of time for triggering the elevation of hormones when the temp is brought back up, at least thats the way I remember it? or is my memory wrong? I think it was a paper that somebody posted on this forum last year or the year before, does anyone else remember reading that?
I'm beginning to think that bigger and fatter, doesn't necessarily mean more babies though, although sometimes it certainly does translate. Most of us have certainly heard both sides of the arguement, that to fat is unhealthy and reduces productivity, vs there is no such think as too much food for a female snake, the more energy the female has towards eggs or babies the better. shrug
Sorry for all the questions, I find this is an especially interesting topic.

[charles parenteau]

Nice to hear that Tom congratulation my friend !!!Northern species of garter snake i think should have at least 3 months of hibernation!!

[ConcinusMan]

I read a scientific paper which stated that their findings were that how low a drop in temp had more effect than the length of time for triggering the elevation of hormones when the temp is brought back up

But it seems like it's always parietalis they are studying. Most of our garters don't quite have to through what they do each winter. I brought this up to Dr. Robert Mason. He even told me that after studying NW species and Canadian parietalis' there's huge differences between them due to the adaptation to extreme cold and long winters. Conclusions or assumptions about all or even most garter snakes can't be drawn from studying just parietalis. He admitted that they are chosen because they need huge numbers of snakes to do such studies and it's just easier to study them because of the numbers.