Who likes big girls?

[Jeff B]

Tyler, you are really just arguing with yourself. If you read my post I never refute the fact that inbreeding is a compounding factor, nor that it is not an issue in the hobby. Tom, I think that conditioning and brumations could be a factor. Would you mind sharing what your ideal brumation conditions are?

[twgrosmick]

There are breeders that don't brumate at all and have high success rates. I don't see how I am "arguing with myself." You completely ignored the fact in your original post that inbreeding is a factor and you jump right to the defense of "it happens in the wild." In captivity brumation is used as a stimulation to get the breeding process going. Once the courting process is complete its a matter of making sure the proper temperatures are maintained for the female to develop the babies. I hope Mike doesn't mind me mentioning his name, but during his first garter breeding, after little brumation other than tossing them in a box in a "cooler closet" had a litter of 13 infernalis, no still borns, no undeveloped babies. It is a matter of outcrossing and just as important maintaining the proper temperatures to allow the babies to form correctly in the mother. Anyone that breeds live bearers knows its all about temperatures. Just like eggs need to be incubated at certain temperatures, a pregnant female needs to have specific temperatures to properly develop the babies.

[ConcinusMan]

So Richard how many litters have you produced in your "25+" years of breeding garters? Must be at least 25 right?

I don't rightly know. Even if I was counting I would have lost count by now.

I think that conditioning and brumations could be a factor.

Seems reasonable. I do realize it's inconclusive but the smallest litter I had (just 7 babies) came from an unbrumated female, which also happened to be my only time getting a litter from an unbrumated female. Brumated the year before, she had 19.