San Francisco Garters in Europe - family tree?

[adamanteus]

It's always nice to welcome a fellow Brit, Paul.
Can you trace the lineage of your tetras very far?
I think it's a great idea that we keep future breedings as 'unrelated' as possible.... but it will be difficult to get some people on board.
I'm up for it though. I think part of the problem is the surfeit of males..... I have a trio, one of which is female. They were already attempting to mate prior to brumation, so I'm hoping for a fruitful year..... but I'd be quite happy to exchange one of my males for a more distantly related male, if that can be figured out.

[adamanteus]

I think part of the problem is the surfeit of males......

Which makes me think....... Many of you may already be aware of 'temperature dependant sex determination' in the incubation of reptile eggs (keep them warmer = more males, keep them cooler = more females), this works for live bearing snakes too. I needed more radix females so I kept my gravid female cooler than I might have otherwise..... out of 18 young she had 17 females.
I wonder if breeders have tried this with tetrataenia... I know I will next year.

[infernalis]

Which makes me think....... Many of you may already be aware of 'temperature dependent sex determination' in the incubation of reptile eggs (keep them warmer = more males, keep them cooler = more females), this works for live bearing snakes too. I needed more radix females so I kept my gravid female cooler than I might have otherwise..... out of 18 young she had 17 females.
I wonder if breeders have tried this with tetrataenia... I know I will next year.

Thank you, Cheers, Salutations

James that little tidbit of info just made my whole day.

It also explains something, while my gravid eastern was gestating, I provided her with a hot rock (set on low) that she chose to sit on nearly all the time, I wound up with a litter of nearly all males.

[Conners]

It's always nice to welcome a fellow Brit, Paul.
Can you trace the lineage of your tetras very far?
I think it's a great idea that we keep future breedings as 'unrelated' as possible.... but it will be difficult to get some people on board.
I'm up for it though. I think part of the problem is the surfeit of males..... I have a trio, one of which is female. They were already attempting to mate prior to brumation, so I'm hoping for a fruitful year..... but I'd be quite happy to exchange one of my males for a more distantly related male, if that can be figured out.

Cheers for the encouraging words Adamanteus. I guess the problem with my idea of a register of animals is that the meaningful data doesn't come through for a few years, because we start with a list of animals whose relationships aren't known. So it will take time and patience. I do think it would be worth it though. Within just a couple of years we'd have broken the chain of filial generations and could be mating cousin snakes instead of siblings.

I don't know anything about the lineage of my two I'm afraid - quite frustrating, but the chap who who sold them to me didn't ask the Dutch breeder at the time of purchase. He's offered to try and find out more though.

Good luck breeding your guys post brumation!

[adamanteus]

I don't know anything about the lineage of my two I'm afraid - quite frustrating, but the chap who who sold them to me didn't ask the Dutch breeder at the time of purchase.

To be honest, Paul, there's every chance that the original breeder of your tetrataenia is a Thamnophis.com member. We have some of the biggest European Garter keepers on this forum, including some 'leading' Dutch keepers.

[Conners]

To be honest, Paul, there's every chance that the original breeder of your tetrataenia is a Thamnophis.com member. We have some of the biggest European Garter keepers on this forum, including some 'leading' Dutch keepers.

Cool - fingers crossed that will be the case! I'm sure some of those guys must already be doing what I'm proposing in terms of the register. I mean if they've bred SFs a few times I'm sure they themselves will be trying to keep the genes as mixed up as possible. I really hope we hear from someone about it if that's the case.

Cheers James!

Paul