Breeding jungles (corns x kings)

[jb732]

Has anyone had experience breeding jungles? Are they sterile (like mules) or are they breedable? Can they be crossed with another cal king, another corn or another jungle? I would appreciate any input on this subject!

 

[brianm616]

no, they are not sterile like mules; horses and donkeys have different chromosome counts, resulting in sterile offspring (almost 100% of the time). the vast majority of colubrid constrictors, both old and new world, have the same number; so yes, 99.9% of the offspring (either F1, F2 or so on) are typically fertile and can be mated back to either parent species or mixed into other similar colubrid bloodlines.

however, there is a high amount of slugs (infertile eggs) when creating the initial F1 generation; this likely has to do with gene timings being off between different species - although the infertility rate (slug eggs) typically is much lower in consecutive generations (F2 and on) though there are still some issues that may pop up (i.e. you may still have to do trick mating).

a breeder i know has some F1 sinaloan x corn's - two seasons ago he got ten good eggs, while last season they only produced four.

 

[jb732]

Thanks so much for the information. It is very helpful & appreciated!

 

[annmikeal]

From what I have learned from others is that you always want to breed a female king with a male corn (something about the hemipene size...) Also that you should lure the male corn with a female corn than right before he copulates switch out the female corn for a female king Dont want your corn snake getting eaten...