Quote:
Originally Posted by Will0W783
I really am not sure about whether or not one clutch can have multiple fathers. It can happen in other species, cats for example.
I do know that snakes retain sperm, sometimes for years. The mother of my Wetar Island pit viper was bred in 2011, and she had a litter of babies. She ovulated in 2012, got pregnant again and gave birth to several more babies a few months ago- without having been bred this season. So that means that she retained some sperm from last year's breeding. I'm pretty sure there was a thread on one of the forums about a female rattlesnake giving birth after 5 years in captivity- never having been bred since being captured.
I do know that snakes create sperm plugs, the purpose of which is to seal off other competing males' sperm, so my guess would be that she could not become gravid by two males in the same clutch. Although, she could be bred again after laying the first time, if she was at a good weight. Some people do double-clutch their snakes, although it's quite stressful on the female- they cannot eat while they are gravid.
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Kim is right regarding sperm retention (I believe the rattlesnake situation turned out to be parthenogenesis didn't it?)
You can breed multiple males to a female but generally what happens is the male uses his sperm plugs to ensure that no other male's sperm hits its mark, that being said it has happened where you ended up with a split clutch where one fathers genes go to a number of the offspring and the other offspring carry the other fathers genes, its just rare.
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