breeding

[gartermorphs]

I was wondering since I've never breed garter snake before im getting a female Iowa albino gartersnake (thanks don) if i breed her to a male in two years or so that's het for albino would I end up with albino babies? If I breed her to a normal male is there a chance i could get Iowa babies also?

[ConcinusMan]

If you breed her to a normal, the babies will all look normal but will be "het", carrying the albino gene and able to pass it on. In order for a baby to come out albino, it must receive the albino gene from both parents.

If you breed her to a het iowa albino (looks normal but parent was albino) you'll get a 50% chance of producing albinos.

The thing with dons snake is that they are het for several different traits such as nebraska albino, iowa albino, christmas albino, snow, so if you breed her to a a snake that is het for all of those traits, you have a chance at a wide variety of offspring.

I also got an '09 Iowa albino from Don. She carries genes for nebraska albino, snow, and christmas albino I believe. And so, I'm getting an iowa albino male for her this year that also carries those recessive traits. I won't be breeding her until 2012, and that's if I feel she's ready. You're going to love that snake. Amy is my favorite.

It was pretty easy to convert her from fish to pinkies and now she's growing like mad! (3 inches in the last 8 weeks)
She hates bright light and thus only comes out of her hide at night so keep that in mind. No UV bulbs or basking bulbs! I recommend using a 60 watt ceramic heat emitter (for 10 gallon tank) or an undertank heater. She seems most comfortable when temperature in her hide is 82-85 degrees F. If you want to see her out and active at night you might want to use a red "night bulb" or other bulb designed for viewing nocturnal herps.

[gartermorphs]

ok great thanks for all the info! I'm very excited to get her shell be my first cb gartersnake and I have been waiting for awhile to pick the perfect type! and im a night owl type person so I hope she turns out kinda like yours!

[ConcinusMan]

I highly recommend you start out by feeding her small pieces of fish (I use silversides, just the clean meat and guts) and try to seek in a small piece of pinky scented with the fish. Feed her small meals very often (daily or every other day) instead of stuffing her with big meals. I just gradually started feeding her more and more pinkies with her fish until she got used to the feel of pinky in her mouth. Then one day, I tried the pinky parts without any fish scent and she went for it. That's about all she eats now, but I still occasionally feed her pieces of night crawlers and fish.

Now that she's gained more size and strength I've begun to feed her bigger pieces. She's now eating 5 meals a week and going through 1 and a half (fairly large) pinkies a week.

[gartermorphs]

ok ill definetly try that because im personally feeding my wild caught garters toads and silversides (I personally raise the toads so that theres no parasites.) and the ocasional worm. because there so picky.

[gartermorphs]

by the way is yours ok with handling?

[ssssnakeluvr]

they don't carry the snow gene...Ido have a female Iowa snow, will be breeding her next year. the plains have the iowa and nebraska albino genes along with the iowa and the new nebraska christmas albino gene, high orange. I have to get new pics of my nebraska christmas....her orange is becoming almost neon!!!!

[mustang]

ooooo neon colors....someone will be the envy of a certain radix fanatic...a who am i kidding we all like the bright colored radixes theyre cool to look at!

[Jeff B]

just to clarify snow is not "a" gene it is the combination phenotype of two genes togather: albino and anerythristic, the genotype would be two copies of the gene for albino and two copies of the gene for anerythristic. Not trying to be a jerk just want to make sure we understand and keep our genetic terminology correct. Unfortunately it is used that way and I myself have used it that way just so people can relate, but saying het for snow is technically a misnomer, it is more correct to say the animal is heterozygous for albino and heterozygous for anerythristic.

[mustang]

my bio teacher is gonna hate me next yearwhen we talk abbout gennetics lol...ap bio is gonna b a thril