a few questions about breeding

[jwolfe152]

one thing i want to know is if i were to breed the 2 T. S. Sirtalis i have how can i find out about its genetics or in other words chances of an albino/flame/anerythristic etc. morphs, or would i just need to breed and see what i get?

what are the standard sizes/lengths for males and females to begin breeding?

i don't know if i will begin breeding after the new one gets done in her quarantine or not i'm just really curious if those morphs were just something that happened. i have heard that you can sometimes find WC garters with flame morph along with albinos, but what are the percentage of births that actually result in the morphs.

also if i do start breeding i may try selling a few of the ordinary easterns at a low price pretty much with little to no profit at first just to see the reception and because i know that a lot of the cost is in the shipping. i have also thought about doing what Scott does where he will take items for trade of the garters suck as substrate decorations and what not. but as i have said this is just an idea, none of it may ever happen i'm just not real sure.

[guidofatherof5]

To get flames you must breed flames.

[jwolfe152]

ok what other morphs are like that? and if you have to breed flames to get flames how were they found in the wild?

[guidofatherof5]

A naturally occurring morph taken from the wild and through selective breeding the "flame gene" was enhanced(made more intense)
Most morphs start with a wild caught garter.
I was fortunate a couple years back to produce some pure axanthis (black and white) radixes when I was simply trying to produce some albino hets. The mixing of those two snake's genes produced the surprise. I was just lucky.

[d_virginiana]

If I'm not mistaken, the wild flame gene originated somewhere in Canada? Erythristics (another red morph) can be found near the coast of NC.

Honestly, with two WC snakes, the odds of you producing anything other than normals is probably about zero. Probably the simplest trait to work with if you just want to produce cute babies that aren't normals is an albino. It's fairly cheap to buy an adult albino, and if you bred that snake to one of your normals, all the babies would turn out normal. If you kept a male and female from that litter and bred them together you'd get albinos in the next litter.

I think a good benchmark is probably around 2 years old for breeding. It's more important to wait for the female to get to a good size than the male though. If he's not ready to breed, he just won't breed. If the female is too small to breed, then it can be unsafe for her.

[jwolfe152]

ok i don't care much for albinos but thats a place to start when i am ready. it doesn't really matter if i like them or not if i plan on selling anyways lol what i really like are flames and the erythristics(like more)

[guidofatherof5]

ok i don't care much for albinos but thats a place to start when i am ready. it doesn't really matter if i like them or not if i plan on selling anyways lol what i really like are flames and the erythristics(like more)

I beg to differ with that statement. I think the degree of care we give them or any other animal is rooted in our like or dislike for them. Garters are garters.
I certainly mean no offense and don't think you meant it in the way you wrote it but I don't want anyone to misconstrue your meaning.

[jwolfe152]

oh god no i would never treat a snake badly just because it is an albino over any other morph, same goes for any other animal i have learned that every animal has its own "personality" like dogs i don't care what breed it is you can make a great dane a lap dog and other cute small dogs mean and hate people, i know that has a lot to do with how you treat the animal whatever it is. but yea your right i would take care of them as if they were flames or whatever i love the snakes but the color/morph is just not a preference of mine.

[guidofatherof5]

oh god no i would never treat a snake badly just because it is an albino over any other morph, same goes for any other animal i have learned that every animal has its own "personality" like dogs i don't care what breed it is you can make a great dane a lap dog and other cute small dogs mean and hate people, i know that has a lot to do with how you treat the animal whatever it is. but yea your right i would take care of them as if they were flames or whatever i love the snakes but the color/morph is just not a preference of mine.

I hope you see my point and why I responded the way I did.
Your response to my post was just as I thought it would be. Great job clarifying your position on your original statement.