• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

How to take DNA samples from snakes?

Here is a website that makes DNA necklaces out of samples from your pet.

http://perpetua.us./

They don't say what to do about reptiles, but when I called, I actually spoke to a veterinarian who answered all my questions. I ended up going the blood draw route, but i'm sure they could answer any and all questions you guys have about DNA sampling.

Edit: Oops, they do talk about reptiles. They want blood. But like I said, call them and see what your other options may be. THey're wonderful.
 
Actually, the baby is less than a month old, and the owner is sort of hesitant to have a blood draw at this point, but is interested in proving that Mommy is the only parent. Also looking for a place to have the sample tested...for a reasonable price.
 
Thanks, I'll follow these up - don't want to draw blood if an oral swab (or at a HUGELY over-optimistic stretch) a shed skin would work...

Thanks again for the input, would be very interested in an update on the possible parthogenesis.
 
I jut has two herp scientists here working on a list of Fiji's reptiles, and they say that actually it can be possible to get DNA from a shed - the trick is to handle it right (probably surgical gloves wouldn't be a bad idea).

Do not allow it to come into contact with any other snakes or sheds, air dry it completely, store in a clean new Ziplock bag with as much air squeezed out as possible, at room temp, or better yet, in the fridge.

I'm going to start storing sheds for them and we'll see if eventually analysis can be done.
 
Could you possibly get DNA from the shed skin?

oops lol I posted before reading all of the replies. I heard Dr. Booth talking on KS about testing for parthogenesis and he was using shed skins from the mother and babies.
 
Last edited:
AbsoluteApril said:
Could you possibly get DNA from the shed skin?

oops lol I posted before reading all of the replies. I heard Dr. Booth talking on KS about testing for parthogenesis and he was using shed skins from the mother and babies.
Click to expand...

Great minds thinking alike! I think carefully preserved sheds could work. Would be nice to get confirmation from anyone who's actually done it though.....
 
Hey All,


I work in a genetics lab and about 90% of my job is purifying and amplifying dna. I have gotten adequate dna samples from snakes with sheds, although RNA is degraded to much to be useful.

The only issue with using sheds is contamination. During genetic testing we have to replicate or amplify the dna. During this process we would also amplify any other dna that is present-so you have to make sure the shed is not contaminated with skin cells from cage mates, other animals, yourself(super touchy if your doing pcr for sex determination).

Just use cleaned tweezers, latex/nitrile gloves to get the skin off the animal, and store in ziplock bags. Since the shed skin is already desicated cold storage really isn't that necessary, but since everyon has a fridge cold storage can only help(can't hurt).

Thanks
ben
 
Hey,

I forgot to take into account what you are trying to do here(see if a Rhac was parthogenically reproduced). So you will need to compare to offsprings dna to the dams. There is a couple ways of doing this.

If we knew the genome of a Rhac and all the known constructs were the same you could argue it was a clone. But I believe to do a more strict match(im not that familiar with clones/cloning) you have to use mitochondrial dna-this is probably cleaner(less fragmented) if a tissue clip was used. Shed is only comprised of epithelial cells, where a tissue clip would contain all levels/types of tissue(except bone in this case).

Thanks
ben
 
I'm not sure that mitochondrial DNA would answer the question of parthogenesis, as it always comes from the mother anyway, so any father's DNA would not be represented.
 
Hey,

You are correct, but in parthogenesis there is no father. So you compare the mitochondrial dna, and if there is an exact match then it is a clone, i.e parthogenesis.

If it is not a match (outside of random point mutations) then there was a male present somewhere sometime.

thanks
ben
 
I bow to your more current knowledge of this, but as all mitochondrial DNA always comes from the mother, wouldn't they be identical in the offspring whether there was a father involved or not? I.e, barring point mutations, all mitochondrial DNA is effectively a "clone"of the mother's.
 
Hey,

Now you've got me doing double takes!Lol. I'll holler at my boss tomorrow afternoon and get this double checked. He is a prof. of medical genetics-he should set it straight.

thanks
ben
 
Hey,

After a talk with the boss, and another professor acrossed the hall I have determined that Mitochondrial DNA I either was playing hooky or my eyes were glazed over from all the excitement of the lecture.


So Basically there is a ton of ways to see if the offspring is a clone of the adult. Some of it is more educated guesstimates, some is pretty tricky to determine 100%, and other areas have still not proven themselves to even work 100% of the time. Some of them I had no idea what laguage he was speaking and I was daydreaming.
So the quickest easiest way, with decent results for the effort would be to look at longer strands of dna from the female (over 1000base pairs) and compare them to the offspring. If you looked in say ten place (the more you do the more conclusive it is) and the long chains were identical you could argue it was a clone.

If I aborbed it correctly this time.

As for mitochondrial dna, since it is passed from the female unmolested by the males dna, they use it to look at lineages in populations to see how long ago the groups/localities cleaved, and origins/descent of populations. Becuase on a broad scheme each locality is roughly considered at a rough level a clone in thier own group. I.E. if you breed a boxer dog to a boxer dog you aren't going to pop out a german shepard.

I guess it was about time for my one annual post were I talk out of my bum and someone catches me on it. Well, this made me put out way to much effort and my head hurts now-off to gather some adult beverages and wash some rubbermaids.


thanks
ben
 
Back
Top