Retention...

I've been wondering about sperm retention. 2 seasons ago I had these 2 normal girls that I bred with a normal male. Yay! Normal babies. Last season I bred these 2 girls to my pied male. I wasn't comfortable labeling the babies as hets so I kept all the girls and sold the boys locally as normals. Same pairings this season. The question is.....How long do you think a female can retain sperm from a previous breeding? I'll never sell any of their babies as hets, It's just something I'm wondering about.

Wow...is this something that can actually happen? Meaning a year later a female can produce babies from the male she was bred to the previous year? I havent heard of it. But then again, im new to breeding.

Wow! No votes. I guess I stumped the experts. Now I know why I don't know the answer to this. Maybe there is no answer. The only way I can think of to test this would be to switch codom males from 1 season to the next. Well DNA testing would work as well but no matter how many times I see them do it on CSI, I just can't seem to figure it out. I thought some of you longer term breeders may have some experience with switching males from year to year.

id say they can return sperm up to about 6 months maybe a year no longer then that id breed em to codom then resessive and keep switching off that way you know

I had my female het albino bred to my male last year. The last time I noted breeding was on 1-23-08. She laid a clutch with one good egg on 7-5-08. moved it to the incubator and it hatched as an albino on 9-9-08.

That may not really answer the question, but I can say with certainty, at least 5 months. Both of these animals were way to small to breed when I got them. Plus I was able to prove them out as hets on the first try.

Ahthank you, thank you very much.

YAHH 200 posts

I have not had any retained sperm issues before.

Ok. So I know this guy who breeds boas. He has an adult het albino female that he bred in the fall of 06 to a het sunglow male. Spring of 07 he got a litter of babies, albinos, sunglows, poss hets, etc. Fall of 07 he didn't introduce any males to her. He gave her the year off to recoup. No babies in the spring of 08. Fall of 08 she's looking good and ready for love. He breeds her to an albino male. Spring of 09 babies. I may be a little off on the numbers but you'll get the idea. Out of 30 babies there's 12 albinos and 18 non albinos. The problem is that 1 of the albinos is a sunglow. I haven't seen it in person but this guy is no dummy and he knows what a sunglow is. The only explanation possible is that she retained sperm for 2 years and the het sunglow male from the fall of 06 is the sunglows daddy. This of course makes all the non albinos in the litter possible hets now instead of 100%ers. Something to think about there eh?

We need paternity tests!

Somebody call Maury Povich.

Chris, because of the conversation you & I had about this, I'm already mapping out a strategy with my breeding. I have enough females that even if I don't breed them every year or if I breed them to the same males a couple years running, that might make be feel more in control of the outcomes. I def don't want to have to second-guess whether or not I have true hets, etc. And at least I'll be closer to knowin' who my baby-daddy is!