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"Henry" is a "Henrietta!"

JentherophisGuttatus

JentherophisGuttatus

Watermark Reptile Rescue
My wonderful boy, Henry, was adopted way back in 2006 as a hatchling. When I began to get interested in breeding corns, I had Henry sexed by a professional breeder; she sincerely believed that she correctly sexed him as male, and I believed her, too; I was standing right there helping her sex "him," after all, and the probe went in six or seven subcaudial scales.

Wonder of wonders, "he" is actually a "she!" In fact, this virgin snake, raised in total isolation from any other snakes laid 22 eggs! Most were infertile, but a few are actually fertile and healthy looking! I repeat, this snake has never been with any other snake before. So Henry, now "Henrietta," may have little clones soon. I'm not sure how many, if any, will make it. I've heard a lot about parthenogenesis in corn snakes, but I never once dreamed that it would actually happen to me. At least two of the eggs really do look like they might be viable; I'm really hoping they will be. Should be an interesting biology lesson! :cool:
 

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Awesome! Last year one of my unsexed snakes laid virgin eggs too, 11 of them and 4 had looked somewhat fertile. Nothing came of them but I also didn't find them for a few days and they were fairly dehydrated by the time I found them. I will be extremely interested in hearing if anything comes of yours.
 
Oh, I'll definitely keep this thread updated! As you can see from the picture, at least two, possibly three, seem okay. The others mostly seem to be infertile, but I'm incubating them anyway just for the heck of it.
 
From my reading on parthenogenesis in both Rhacodactylus gecko species and colubrid snakes, all the criteria has not been met for it to be considered proven in colubrids but there is enough suggestive evidence of it that it should not be ruled out as impossible.
 
I suppose it is all considering if you could prove that the female was indeed virgin and you really can't. Unless you personally raise them as a hatching and people would just have to take your word for it. Still interesting though!

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In reply to everyone because there are so many responses that it'd be overwhelming to highlight them all: I already candled them, and it looks like a few are viable. We'll just have to see if they make it through incubation; I didn't realize she had eggs until late morning, and they were probably sitting there for a little while because they were slightly dehydrated. Then I had to set up a second incubator and everything. I can prove that Henrietta was virgin and raised in total isolation; I adopted her when she was a smaller-than-a-pencil hatchling, very tiny, and kept her in a single tank with no other snakes for seven years. I've always had only one snake(her) up until this past year, and I can say with absolute certainty that she wasn't exposed to any other reptiles. I'll post some more pics with the viable-ish eggs later when I can take them. Now I just need to get the darn girl to eat; she's been off feed for a while, and, because she'd been missexed as a boy, I never once thought it was because of the fact that she was gravid. Thank you everyone for your support; it came as quite a shock to me yesterday!
 
She's going to go blue right away. I offer a hopper the day of laying, then a weanling or small adult in about two or three days, then a single, medium adult every seven days until she is back to her pre-gravid weight. But she may not feel like eating because she is blue.
 
JentherophisGuttatus said:
In reply to everyone because there are so many responses that it'd be overwhelming to highlight them all: I already candled them, and it looks like a few are viable. We'll just have to see if they make it through incubation; I didn't realize she had eggs until late morning, and they were probably sitting there for a little while because they were slightly dehydrated. Then I had to set up a second incubator and everything. I can prove that Henrietta was virgin and raised in total isolation; I adopted her when she was a smaller-than-a-pencil hatchling, very tiny, and kept her in a single tank with no other snakes for seven years. I've always had only one snake(her) up until this past year, and I can say with absolute certainty that she wasn't exposed to any other reptiles. I'll post some more pics with the viable-ish eggs later when I can take them. Now I just need to get the darn girl to eat; she's been off feed for a while, and, because she'd been missexed as a boy, I never once thought it was because of the fact that she was gravid. Thank you everyone for your support; it came as quite a shock to me yesterday!
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That is great that you have a lot of proof! And I just wanted to say that I did not intend to imply that you or any of the other corn snake keepers who have reported parthenogenesis are lying, I don't think you/they are. Just that from reading the debates on parthenogenesis in regards to some gecko species, it might become believed to be very likely with a number of eyewitness statements but for it to be regarded as a proven fact, it has to happen several times, with different people, and have a lot of document able proof that the animal was in fact never in a position to have been bred, which is fairly hard to conclusively prove. I can't understand why someone would lie about it but there have apparently been some cases in the gecko world of individuals who were caught deliberately lying about it happening to them.
 
I wouldn't suggest you were lying either its just that it would be hard to prove scientifically people could always doubt you know.

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If they are viable then you need to make reservations at the inn! I don't think the wise men come around bearing gifts at this time of year...
 
Tavia said:
That is great that you have a lot of proof! And I just wanted to say that I did not intend to imply that you or any of the other corn snake keepers who have reported parthenogenesis are lying, I don't think you/they are. Just that from reading the debates on parthenogenesis in regards to some gecko species, it might become believed to be very likely with a number of eyewitness statements but for it to be regarded as a proven fact, it has to happen several times, with different people, and have a lot of document able proof that the animal was in fact never in a position to have been bred, which is fairly hard to conclusively prove. I can't understand why someone would lie about it but there have apparently been some cases in the gecko world of individuals who were caught deliberately lying about it happening to them.
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I don't know why someone would lie about it, either. According to the place I adopted one of my corns, Guinevere, then Gwen laid eggs without ever having been with a male, either. I don't know the validity of that statement, but I've heard it's fairly common among corns; there are even articles about it in the Reptiles magazines. So, if it's true, I now have two virgin females who have each laid eggs. :p (Which means I need to find an adult male corn before the next breeding season, because I was hoping to breed "Henry" and Gwen this year, but obviously that's not physically possible, unless my snakes are something from Jurassic Park! Oy.)

And Nanci: I did try feeding her right away, but she wouldn't take it. I'll keep an eye out for her shed and keep trying to feed her.
 
My female wouldn't eat after either. She was starving right after her post lay shed though. I'll be interested to see how this goes. The laying eggs as a virgin is pretty common in reptiles and birds (chickens do it regularly :) ) But having them be actually fertile is rare indeed.
 
My female corn wouldn't eat after laying this year either, until she finished shedding. And then she was ravenous!
 
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