Birthing Records
The 2013 baby season has begun. Two litters were born on 4/22/13.
The first litter was from T. sirtalis infernalis aka California red-sided. Ended up with 13 big healthy babies. The parents are the neon blue variation (see pics of mom in the breeders photo gallery), so they will get prettier and take on more blue color with every shed. Already they have good red color.
The Second litter of 2013
Born 4/22/2013, the dame of this litter was produced last year from breeding the wild caught Dodge Co. albino T.radix to my female axanthic T.radix. The axanthic gene has not been completely well characterized or documented, but it has long been suspected that the axanthic gene and the anerythristic gene are co-allelic to each other. That is the two mutations are different alleles or slightly different mutations yet exist at the same loci or location on a gene. Thus, an axanthic phenotype is actually genotypically one copy axanthic gene and one copy anerythristic gene. Two copies of the anerythristic gene which is recessive, yields the anerthristic phenotype, a very dark almost solid black snake. However, two copies of the axanthic gene does not yield a phenotypic axanthic snake. Only when a snake inherits one copy of the axanthic gene and one copy of the anerythristic gene does the axanthic phenotype manifest itself as a black and blue snake.
This litter was good and bad. The good part was 20 big healthy babies and no stillborns or jelly beans. The bad part was that
The dame is a normal looking phenotype, with a 50% chance to be carrying a copy of the axanthic gene, or a 50% chance of carrying the anerythristic gene, but also 100% het Dodge Co. albino. The dame proved out to actually be het for anerythristic and het Dodge Co. albino based on the premise that the axanthic gene and the anerythristic gene are co-allelic and with the types and ratios of this litter, that is only one possibility based on the punnet squares. Base on the ratio and types of offspring she could not be carrying the axanthic gene. The sire of this litter was an axanthic T.radix purchased this winter from Scott Felzer.The sire proved out to also be het Iowa albino, which was a bonus surprise that neither Scott nor I were aware of.
Originally it was suspected that the wild caught albino male from Dodge Co. Nebraska was a Nebraska type strain with a dark orange dorsal stripe, however this litter actually proved that this new albino is actually compatible with the Iowa strain albino. The results were 17 big healthy babies: 4 normal, 4 axanthics, 3 anerythristics, 1 high orange dorsal striped Iowa strain type albino, 3 Iowa strain type snows, and 2 blizzards. The two blizzards have faint orange dorsal stripes that go about half way down the back. Can't wait to see what the blizzards and axanthics look like when they get a little size.
This was an exciting litter in several ways, there were no stillborns or slugs in the litter, there is a nice variety of different morphs and morph combinations, the Dodge Co. albino proved out to be compatible to the Iowa strain albino, and further confirmed and characterized the axanthic gene. I hope to get better pictures when they get a little bigger.
The Third litter of 2013 born 4/24/13
Ended up with 25 perfect big babies and ZERO slugs or stillbornes. After having a bad year last year this season is going pretty darn good. Must have done something right this season. The dame was a T. radix (plains) het axanthic (one of her parents was axanthic so she had a 50% possibility of being het axanthic or het anerythristic). The sire was an axanthic visual (so being co-allelic he carries one copy axanthic and one copy anerythristic).This means the sire would have to donate either a copy of axanthic gene OR a copy of anerythristic gene. About half the babies born are axanthic and the other half are normal phenotype. Thus proving out that the female is in fact het axanthic (or she carries one copy of the axanthic gene). This also means that all the normal looking babies are 100% het anerythristic. If the dame would have been het anerythristic half the babies would have been anerythristic and the other half would have been normals het axanthic. Hope I didn't confuse anyone.
 There seems to be two different colored axanthics in this litter. Pictured below is a representative of the two different colored axanthics and a normal from the same litter. It will be interesting to see how these two different axanthic types breed out.
The 4th litter of 2013 was small but sweet, born 4/26/13
This litter was from a granite to granite checkered breeding, and unfortunately there were 3 stillborns, but 3 healthy babies prevailed.
The 5th litter of 2013, born 4/27/2013
This litter was good and bad. It was from breeding F1s from the parental wild caught blue-green axanthic Chicago. The good part is there were 20 healthy babies born with no slugs or stillborns, but the bad news is the axanthic did not prove out to be a simple recessive gene, or at least it wasn't obvious at birth. I will raise them up and keep an eye on them for the first few months to see if the color will develop, I am not very optimistic. The odds were that 1 in 4 or 25% chance for axanthic and with 20 babies its very unlikely that is just missed.
The 6th litter born on April 28 is a small litter.
This litter was from an F1 Chicago female whose father was the wild caught green axanthic. Unfortunately once again there were no obvious axanthics. I am pretty certain that the axanthic is not a simple recessive gene, but it may be a polymorphic gene similar to the flame that will take line breeding to bring it out. the reason I believe this may be possible is that the mother of these babies was the F1 with the most green color and these babies have a more olive green color. Time will tell and I will be watching these guys in the upcoming months to see if any color develops when they have shed a few times. Again this project may end up being in vain, but I will might as well see it out a little longer. It is also possible that I will not be able to replicate the phenotype of the wild caught male for whatever reason.
The 7th litter born-Panda Pied makers!!!
The dame is a melanistic female and the sire is het piedbald. These babies aren't much to look at because they are phenotypically normal, but they are 100% het melanistic and 50% poss het piebald, so they have incredible genetic potential. They have the potential to make a white snake with black patches, which could be very impressive looking. A total of 9 live babies, two stills, and a few jellys.
Litter #8 born 5/10/2013
The female that produced this litter is a Schuett snow and the father is a Carteret County erythristic/peach flame het for Schuett albino. Ended up with 9 albinos, some of which are already showing the oranges from the erythristic but it is hard to capture on camera, and 6 normals a couple of which look like they will be erythristics. The erythristics develop more and more color during the course of the first year or so. See photo of the yearling erythristic peach flame albino from last year on the home page to see the amazing transformation. The nice thing about these snakes is that they are all 100% het melanistic as well.
Litter #9 born 5/13/2013
This was a surprising litter. The female dam is het Iowa strain albino red-sided which is a new strain of red-sided. Scott Felzer produced the het female two years ago by breeding the original wild caught Iowa albino red-sided female to an anerythristic male 66% poss. het. Kansas albino. The male sire of this litter was a double het Kansas strain albino and anerythristic (aka het snow). The Iowa strain albino is a very dark looking albino and it was believed that the Iowa strain and Kansas strain would not be compatible since they looked so different. However this litter produced 3 albinos and one anerythristic. The dam is 100% het for Iowa strain but had a chance to also be het for Kansas strain, since her father was an anerythristic male 66% poss. het. albino. Therefor we can not be sure if the Iowa albino and Kansas albino are compatible or not. It will be interesting to see as these albino grow if they look more like the Kansas strain albino of the Iowa strain albino. Ended up with 3 albinos, 1 anerythristic, and 8 normal. Unfortunately, no snows were produced, no slugs, but there was one stillborn anerythristic.
Second litter for 2012 born on March 21
This litter was born a couple days ago. The mother is a peach flame double het for albino and melanistic (het snow, originally produced by Joe Peck and acquired thru Scott Felzer) and the sire is a Carteret Co. erythristic albino that I produced two years ago. Ended up with 6 erythristic/peach flame albinos and 8 erythristic/peach flames. They have varied amounts of orange, but they all have some orange/peach color. One of the albinos is orange top to bottom, not just on the lower sides, cant wait to see it as an adult. They will all be 50% possible het for melanistic and the 8 non-albino peach/flames are then 100% het albinos. I will probably be selling some of these babies once I get them going. Most of them ate their first meal today of cut nightcrawler pieces. It's always nice to see them eat their first meal a couple days after they are born.This litter was good and bad. The good part was 20 big healthy babies and no stillborns or jelly beans. The bad part was that
   
First litter of babies for 2012 born on March 3rd
This litter is from the female blue axanthic bred by the Dodge Co. albino. There were no axanthics born which provides some additional evidence that the axanthic gene is not a co-dominant gene but rather is co-allelic to the recessive anerythristic gene. These babies seem to have inherited the strong yellow orange dorsal from their father. So far they show no red color however they may still develop some red as they get older, as the male was found in an area that has a lot of red radix in the population. All of these babies are likely het for the albino trait. Although this is not a proven albino gene yet since the sire is a wild caught albino, most if not all albino garters have proven to be recessive. If my theory of co-alleles is true, they will also be het for either anerythristic or axanthic (one or the other). The next generation from sib breedings should produce snows or blizzards, axanthic, anery, albinos and possibly red radix. The snows and blizzards might have a unique look to them since the Dodge Co. albino has a slightly different look than the typical Nebraska or T+ albino strain type radix.
Pic of Mom
Pic of male
Pic of babies
2011 babies
10/10/2011 What a big surprise to find a litter born this late in the season. There were 7 healthy babies and 3 stillborn. The female was a yearling erythristic flame 100% het albino. She was getting pretty big towards the end of June, so i put a male erythristic flame from the morh anerythristic in with her and they locked up, and a week later I put the my het silver male in with her and they locked up as well. Later I never really saw her getting that big so I figured she wasn't gravid and I just kinda forgot about the possibility of her being gravid, so I was quite surprised to see babies crawling around this morning. So these babies are definately 50% poss hets for Schuett albino and possible het for Mohr anery or possible het for silver. Looks like 5 of the 7 babies have some degree of erythristic flame, the other two are more black and gray looking, which isn't surprising as both silver hets and anything with Morh anery seem to turn out darker. The het silvers have a distinct look to them, so it will be interesting to see what the two normals look like after a few sheds and a little size to them. Either way these babies have the potiential to produce a new type of snow eastern. I am leaning on that they are from the het silver male as I would have expected more red/orange on them if the erythristic flame Morh anery male is the father, but I really can't be sure. Pictured is the litter at birth, followed by, pics at 4 weeks of age (notice how they have already started to color up), then a pic of mom and the two possible dads. These babies will be absolute screamers in a year from now.
pics at one day old
Pics at 4 weeks of age
Pic of mom
Pic of the two possible dads
7/12/11 The female coast garter had her babies today and she had 17 big healthy babies. See if you can count all seventeen heads, hint one is partally hidden. These babies are F1s and will be up for sale as soon as they have eaten a few times. They will develope more red as they grow.
Below is a picture of the parents to the litter above
7/8/11 The normal female chicago garter that was bred by the green axanthic gave birth to a small litter. There were 7 big healthy babies, 1 stillborn, 2 jelly beans. They all look normal so again hopefully the axanthic gene is recessive and they are also hets.
The parents are the top two in the photo below, the normal female and the green axanthic male
6/27/11 The hypo female chicago that was bred by the green axanthic male gave birth to a descent sized litter of 13 big healthy babies. There were zero slugs and zero stillborns, and no runts or kinked babies, always a nice sight to see!!! I was actually home taking a vacation day and by luck caught in the middle so I was able to watch the last half of the litter being born, so I was able to make a little video with my phone but the lighting is terrible. The babies all look the same, like plain old normals as far as I can see which is actually great because that means that it's possible that the traits of the parents are simple recessive genes, which would make these babies double hets. If either trait were co-dominant or even polygenetic there is a statistically significant probability that we should have seen a variant animal in these 13 babies. If these traits prove to be in fact simple recessive traits, that would be ideal from the standpoint of being able to predictably reproduce the trait in subsequent offspring. I will need to hold back some of these babies and breed some of the F1's (first generation) to each other and some F1's back to both P1's (parental generation wild caught) to prove this hypothesis. If this proves out the F1 x F1 breeding will statistically yield approximately 6.25% (1/16) hypo green axanthic combo (both genes expressed), 18.75% (3/16) hypo and 66% possible het for green axanthic, 18.75% (3/16) green axanthic and 66% possible het for hypo, and 56.25% (9/16) normals that are 66% possible het for either traits, and if you really want to break it down of those 56.25% (9/16) normals, 25% (4/16) would be double hets (het for both traits), 12.5% (2/16) would be het green axanthic, 12.5% (2/16) would be het hypo, and 6.25% (1/16) would be het for neither trait, but since we can't tell which are which we just simple say 66% possible het for either trait (not both traits as that is only a 25% chance as shown above). I realize this can all seem a bit complicated but it is simply the results of a 4x4 punnett square, since the F1's would be capable of producing 4 gamete possibilities, resulting in 16 squares possible for the F2 genotypes. This would be great practice for anyone learning about punnett squares and genetics to perform the above punnett square and verify my results, just be sure not to cut any corners so you can see all your exact genotypes and probabilities, and realize that the combo subtracts out of the single gene probabilities so as to not be counted twice. Can't wait to grow these babies up and do the breeding trials and hopefully prove out either or both traits. Make no mistake this is an exciting litter for me!
 Pic of parents of the above litter- male green axanthic and the hypo female (lower right without any black spots)
6/13/11 My pastel checkered female gave birth to a small litter, she only had 3 babies and 2 jelly beans, but the babies are very, very large. I figured she would have a small litter as she is a small sized snake for a 2 yr old female. The dame is a hypo/pastel produced 2yrs ago by Brad Chambers, the sire is my male granite checkered so all 3 of these babies are 100% het for granite, that we know for sure. It will be interesting to see what comes from breeding these potientially double hets back to each other or to mom or to a granite. Who knows how those two genes will react to each other, but it is neat to see Brads new babies whether they are a new recessive gene or "supers" of the co-dom pastel, and it's nice knowing that the dame of this litter is from that same stock so potientially these 3 babies could be double het for granite and Brads new pastel gene, anyway you slice it that is a lot of potiential to be excited about with these babies.
 Now that these babies have shed and have a little size here are some pics of the 3 babies from the above litter at 3 weeks old. It has become obvious that two are pastels and one is normal, they are all 100% het granite and possibly the pastel has a super form.
5/28/11 three small litters have been born this past week.
Even though the litters thus far have been small all babies were born very large and healthy with only one stillborns and zero jelly beans, so the males did there jobs. All of these babies are feeding extremely well on small night crawlers and fish, in fact they are eating so well that I will start adding pinkie parts into their diet in a week or so.
Thus far there have been 2 eastern litters, one with erythristic/flame het Mohr anerythristic x flame (these 3 are smokers already and will get more red as they mature), one melanistic and a Carteret Co. erythristic 66% het snow, and then 5 albino red-sideds and 2 het albino red-sided. There is also a close-up photo of one of the erythristic flames possible het Mohr anery. These snakes will all be for sale in a week or so when they are good and ready for new homes.
2010 babies
8th litter born 4/26/10- the granite checkered female gave birth to these cuties. She was on the small side and had several jelly beans and several stillborns.
7th litter born 4/22/10- this was from breeding my male Iowa snow het Nebraska albino to my female Nebraska albino het Iowa albino and anerythristic. Unfortunately there were stillborn Nebraska snow, Iowa snow, anerythristics, and 1 normal. Luckily though there was one perfect Nebraska albino and one Iowa albino. What a contrast in albino strains, it hard to believe that these two babies came out of the same mother, these two albino strains are clearly not compatible, the Nebraska albino is on the left and the Iowa albino is on the right side.
6th litter born 4/11/10- these babies were from the black back flame male bred to the low end flame female, unfortunately most of this litter was stillborn, but luckily 3 survived, two of them look like they will be nice quality medium to high end flames, and the other will be a low end orange flame.
4th and 5th litter born 4/7/10-interestingly these 2 females are sisters and last year they had their babies on the same day and this year same thing they both had their babies on the same day. Both females are red-sideds double het for albino and anerythristic (snow) the first female was bred by my albino male and the second female was bred by my double het albino and anerythristic male.
Female 1 (1st pic, taken in a five gallon bucket) had a total of 44 live healthy babies, 17 albinos and 27 normals 100% het albino. (now that is a bucket of babies)
Female 2 (2nd pic) had a total of 31 babies, 2 snows, 7 albinos, 9 anerythristics, and 13 normals 66% possible het snow. This is quite the pair of breeder sisters!!!
3rd litter born 4/4/10- a small litter of Iowa snow plains were born from a snow to snow breeding so they were all snows. Here is a short video of one of them being born (poor video but you get the idea)
2nd litter born 4/3/10- this litter is from a male snow red-sided bred to a female snow red-sided, so all the babies are snow red-sided. This girl went a bit early I am afraid, she had been pacing the tub for the last week and stopped eating a couple weeks ago, so I was worried about her, and sure enough she thru several jelly beans (unfertile eggs) and there were 5 fully developed stillborns, the great news in there were 4 perfectly healthy live snow babies born. One of them is very pale, the others are very pink
1st litter born 3/31/10 with a big surprise- this litter is from breeding the Carteret Co. Erythristic het for albino to the male Carteret Co. Erythristic het for albino. This was her second litter, but last year she only had the one live baby erythristic albino and the rest were stillborn. This year she had some jelly beans and a few deformed but 9 perfectly healthy live babies, the big surprise was that there was a melanistic in the bunch, which means that both parents are also het for melanistic, which was not previously known, this also means that there could have been a erythristic snow produced, unfortunately didn't hit the odds in this litter maybe next year. There is also one albino in the litter and one normal that already show quite a bit of color. The melanistic shows black spots like a black leopard, normally eastern melanistic are solid jet black with no pattern, I believe that this is a result of the combination of erythristic and melanistic genes, and have decided to call the combo, "Black Leopard". Unfortunately after a couple weeks the spots dissapeared and the leopard became a solid black melanistic animal, the melanistic gene was just too dominant over the erythristic genes.
Group photo below
The Black Leopard (erythristic melanistic)
The albino, erythristic, and melanistic
2009 babies-currently 9 litters have been born this spring as of 6/13/09 with 2-3 more females expected to have babies, so please check back. Once everything is sexed, and feeding well, babies will be posted for sale, please check the Currently Available for Sale page.
Litter #5 is important enough that it deserved to be put at the top of the list.
Introducing the WORLDS FIRST EVER PRODUCED: SNOW RED-SIDED!!!!!
This litter was produced on April 14, from my other pair of double het red-sided and this litter smashed the odds, producing 2 snows, 1 albino, 5 anerythristics, and 5 normals. One of the snows is missing from the group photo because it had just been born and was still sticky with membrane, but the two snows are pictured together with the one still trying to shed.
Here is some pics of the 2 worlds first snow red-sided garters. Notice how tranparent they are, you can see their blood vessels and organs, they both have shed now and appear to be healthy, hopefully they will eat and grow fast.
2009 litter#1 Yeah!!!! 1st litter of the year was born tonight on good friday April 10th.
These are from one of the double het for anery and albino (snow) red-sided. Ended up with 9 normals, 4 anerythristics, and 4 albinos.
2009 litter #2 Second litter born on April 11 from female snow plains that was bred by the same, produce 5 healthy snows, 3 stillborns and one jelly bean.
Litter #3 April 14 had a bit of a surprise. This was a cross between one of my female het xmas albino plains x male Iowa snow plains. It produced an anerythristic proving that the female is het for anery as well, a nice bonus. It was a small litter with 1 Xmas albino,1 anery, 2 normal that are 100% double het for Iowa snow, and 2 stillborns.
Litter #4 April 14, was an even bigger surprise, this was a cross between my other female het Xmas albino x the male Iowa snow plains, I always only breed one male to one female so I know this is true. It was expected to produce 50% xmas albinos and 50% double het snow normals, because the Iowa albino and Xmas are compatible, but instead produced 2 snows, 2 Xmas albinos, 1 Nebraska albino, 2 anerythristics, and 2 normals. Which proves that the het Xmas female is also het for anerythristic and Nebraska albino, and also that the male Iowa snow is also het for Nebraska albino, this litter could have even produced a Nebraska snow as well. This is not unlikely due to the fact that they were possible hets for Nebraska snow as well. What a bonus, and nice variety litter, definately a keeper female.
Litter #6 born 4/22/09 from Eastern female bred by 66% possible het Schuett snow.
There were many stillborns and jelly beans, but fortunately 3 survived.
Litter #7 born 4/28/09
last night I saw the female sibling to the cream snow Iowa snow plains squirming around and pacing around the tub before I went to bed and sure enough there were little surprises this morning. I saw one baby in the tub so I opened it up and expected to see a small litter like her sisters, but was surprised when I lifted her hide up to find 18 little heads looking at me. There were 6 stillborns and 2 jelly beans too, unfortunately. They are all really big fat babies though. Surprisingly there was one born that is crem colored with yellow eyes again,not in the picture, pictures later as it was having difficulty shedding and is on a wet paper towel. I have a new theory now that maybe the cream colored ones are both Iowa snow and Nebraska snow and the same time and the combo causes some difficulty oxygenating blood at birth, I will need to do some outcrossing breeding in the next couple years to prove or disprove this theory, but by the number produced and the ratio produced could fit the model of being homogygous for the 3 genes: Iowa albino, Nebraska albino, and anerythristic.
Litter #8- born on 6-4-09 from Carteret Co. double het for erythristic albino bred to the same, she had 5 stillborns (4 normals and 1 albino), but luckily 1 healthy male erythristic albino was produced pictured below. This guy should really color up as it grows.
Litter#9- 6/13/09 not really a litter, 1 big llive healthy baby, 1 stillborn, and 20some jelly beans. This was a surprise as the mother is Ruby who had a large batch of jelly beans this spring late March, so I had wrote her off untill next year, she was eating 1 mouse per week like clockwork until she refused last night, but I didn't really think anything of it. This morning I was checking to see if 2 other females had given birth yet and was shocked to see a baby snow in Ruby's tub. This is a big baby though and it ate a rosie this afternoon.  |
