Sperm retention

[kenya_1977]

I'm beginning to think my Cameron Highlands female does not retain sperm. She laid just after she came in, and never became gravid again. I mated her in August and she laid last month, she is not gravid again. This could mean that sperm retention is based on locality populations. Temperatures have been in optimal ranges, so I don't think that temperature played a factor in her retention (or lack of).

Just thought I would put this out there in case anyone else noticed something similar with the Cameron Highland felinus.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

My Cameron Highlands female laid 4 clutches after mating once. She's not laid any in a while though, so I figured I'd give her a break. But she for certain retained sperm for those 4 clutches as she's had zero exposure to a male since her original breeding when I first got her.

 

[kenya_1977]

hm.. must be case by case then.

 

[herperboy]

Your male just isnt very potent :lol:

 

[kenya_1977]

I think it more relies on the female (different male since they were collected a few miles apart originally).. given that she was gravid coming in and also didn't continue to carry another clutch.

 

[GenAureliano]

I have a female that just layed a clutch of eggs that I thought was done for the season. We had a very nice warm october so maybe that put her back into the mood. She went about three months between clutches with no male introduced. When she had been laying about every 30-45 days all on sperm retention. She is of unknown locale and the female that I am doing sperm retention experiments with. My other females get males reintroduced. It could have been four months even between clutches because I quit looking for eggs and found them on accident.

 

[Brian]

Females (animals in general) do seem to have some choice about retention sometimes if I remember some papers. So if it view a male as unfit it may not retian.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

My Cameron Highlands female laid 4 clutches after mating once. She's not laid any in a while though, so I figured I'd give her a break. But she for certain retained sperm for those 4 clutches as she's had zero exposure to a male since her original breeding when I first got her.

Just to add to this, last night when I was weighing her she had lost a few grams. So, I dug around in her enclosure and sure enough found a pair of eggs. I had thought she was done for the season since it had been a few months...but obviously not. And this was still with no further exposure to a male since the original breeding back in march or so.