Firstly, my apologies - this post is a little delayed, it's been a very busy week, and you'll soon understand why.
As I ended my last post, I mentioned that Rory (female Amel Corn) was looking very close to laying a double clutch, after laying her first clutch 5 weeks ago. Double clutching is fairly common in a good condition female, but the odds of these being infertile (slugs) is increased. Well, I'm pleased to say that a couple of days after writing, I decided to have a rummage in the nest box, as I'd not seen Rory that day, so my suspicions were aroused. After carefully removing some moss, I found 13 neatly laid healthy lookijg eggs, ready to be placed into the incubator. All have candled fine, so that's a nice bonus! |
So then on Monday, I come home from work, and set about doing my evening checks - which basically involves wandering around with a temp gun and a jug, opening vivariums and tubs to check temperatures, looking out for excretes for spot cleaning, and topping up waterbowls. I always have a look in the incubator, just to check everything is working as should be and humidity is good, and then just as I was about to close the door, I spotted... something...
Sure enough, a little Corn snake pipping away out of the shell, right on day 56 of incubation. For a few minutes, due to the initial excitement, I failed to even notice it was pink - this is (or rather, was supposedly) from an Amel x Charcoal pairing, so all hatchlings should have been Carolinas (normals), which are a dark chocolatey brown in colour when first hatched. After a quick bit of identification work with some help from the knowledgeable folk on RFUK, it was decided that this little hatchling was in fact a Snow - which is a mixture of Amel and Anery. We know that Rory is an Amel, and we thought that the sire, Cornelius, was a Charcoal, but the pipping of this little hatchlings proves that he is actually an Anery instead.
What's more interesting, and a complete surprise, is that both Rory and Cornelius are carrying a hidden heterozygous gene of each other. As, on a whole, Corn snake morphs are generally recessive genes, both parents must be carrying genes for the offspring to inherit and visually display them. This mean that Rory is actually an Amel, het. for Anery, and vice-versa; Cornelius is an Anery het. for Amel. Hidden hets are impossible to determine visually, and must be proved out by breeding - as is the case with the little Snow above. This has come as a very nice added bonus, and a complete shock.
What's more interesting, and a complete surprise, is that both Rory and Cornelius are carrying a hidden heterozygous gene of each other. As, on a whole, Corn snake morphs are generally recessive genes, both parents must be carrying genes for the offspring to inherit and visually display them. This mean that Rory is actually an Amel, het. for Anery, and vice-versa; Cornelius is an Anery het. for Amel. Hidden hets are impossible to determine visually, and must be proved out by breeding - as is the case with the little Snow above. This has come as a very nice added bonus, and a complete shock.
Over the next two days, the other little snakes we're not far behind, with a new one pipping every hour or so, and a variety of different coloured heads poking out - confirming the new genetic identities of the parents, with a mix of more Snows, Anerys, Amels, and Carolinas. Soon enough, the first one was out of the egg and racing around the incubation tub, followed closely by the rest of the offspring. By the Wednesday, all eggs had hatched, giving me a 100% hatch rate with no defects (which is a huge relief), and a nice mixture of little Corn snake morphs. |
All hatchlings are now housed individually in the hatchling rack I've just finished building, and are getting ready to go through their first shed - after which they'll all be offered their own feed, which I'm keeping my fingers crossed for being a drama-less affair.
The next clutch is due to hatch sometime in the first week of August, from Cornelia - so this will now be an Anery x Anery pairing, which "should" result in all-Anery hatchlings... unless we're in for any more surprises. This does of course mean that my plan for breeding Blizzards is now out of the window, but I'm equally happy at the surprise clutch of Snows - especially since I've just saved three years proving Cornelius out - and I will of course be keeping one back for myself. The hard bit will be deciding on which one...
The next clutch is due to hatch sometime in the first week of August, from Cornelia - so this will now be an Anery x Anery pairing, which "should" result in all-Anery hatchlings... unless we're in for any more surprises. This does of course mean that my plan for breeding Blizzards is now out of the window, but I'm equally happy at the surprise clutch of Snows - especially since I've just saved three years proving Cornelius out - and I will of course be keeping one back for myself. The hard bit will be deciding on which one...