Turtle breeder

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wednesday13

wednesday13

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MFK Member
Mar 2, 2008
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The deep south
Anyone on here also breed turtles? I have a 15" female florida softshell and i'd like to breed her with an albino or hypo. Just curious if theres some morphs available. Turtle vendors seem hard to locate compared to fish. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

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I know this probably isn't much help to you, but I breed snapping turtles. I hatched a clutch with three albinos two years ago. Check out my website for pics..... www.exoticectotherms.com

Sorry, but I have no experience with florida softshells....but they are an awesome species.
 
lmartelli77 said:
I know this probably isn't much help to you, but I breed snapping turtles. I hatched a clutch with three albinos two years ago. Check out my website for pics..... www.exoticectotherms.com

Sorry, but I have no experience with florida softshells....but they are an awesome species.
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Amazing snappers and collection! I did check out ur site before, just the available list tho. How did you get into breeding the snappers and how do you know or suspect the ones with het genes? I figured i could probably breed my own albino or hypo softshells before i could find them somewhere else. I may be crazy to think that im just starting to read about breeding now but how long did it take you for your first clutch of snappers? Ur lucky to have 3 albinos already lol very impressive.

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wednesday13 said:
Amazing snappers and collection! I did check out ur site before, just the available list tho. How did you get into breeding the snappers and how do you know or suspect the ones with het genes? I figured i could probably breed my own albino or hypo softshells before i could find them somewhere else. I may be crazy to think that im just starting to read about breeding now but how long did it take you for your first clutch of snappers? Ur lucky to have 3 albinos already lol very impressive.

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It basically came down to A LOT of luck. I heard rumors that there was an albino snapper living in a pond on this huge cranberry farm. I got permission from the farmer to catch a few snappers from his land as long as I didn't kill them (which I obviously had no intention of doing). I then bred them and got amazingly lucky that my first clutch had 3 albinos out of the 8 eggs that hatched. I have since greatly improved my incubation methods and am hatching about 98% of the eggs. My albinos will probably be ready to breed next spring as they are growing like weeds. I can't wait to have a clutch of 25 or so eggs where they will all be albino! Especially since the curent going rate is $4k-$5k each.
 
Just like that huh? thats a pretty amazing story lol your very lucky. Def. inspired me to give this a true shot though. Maybe i should begin from the start like you did with 2 regular parents and hope for the best. Was there anything special about the turtles you selected from the cranberry farm?
 
Yes....INCREDIBLY lucky.

Visually they look just like normal snappers. In other species sometimes animals have what is called "Het Markers" which basically is a subtle visual trait that suggests they may be carrying one half of a recessive gene. Ball pythons come to mind...as some people believe that Het Piebald BP's have certain "markers", but it hasn't been proven as fact. In snappers, (and I think in all animals) albinism is a recessive gene, so they have to be carrying both halves of the gene to show any visual difference.

The nice thing about my project is that all of the normal looking babies that I have hatched were released into the same pond for the past few years...and statistically speaking, some of them have to be carrying one half of the albino gene. And being that I am the only person who has access to that land and pond, I am hoping to maybe see a few wild albino snappers in the near future. We shall see.....
 
Truely amazing and best of luck with your continuing project. I also appreciate you sharing your knowledge.Theres not much info out there. Been in the hobby 15 years and def. need to start trying to get something back money wise to fund further operations.
 
Thanks bro....and good luck to you as well. And by the way...your Metal Monster builds are amazing! I have been following the 3k build closely and am very jealous.
 
lmartelli77 said:
Thanks bro....and good luck to you as well. And by the way...your Metal Monster builds are amazing! I have been following the 3k build closely and am very jealous.
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Grass is always greener on the other side....I'm jealous of your breeding project, your def. ahead of the game from what ive found theres not many albino snappers/turtles in existence. I'll build you a tank if you can find me an albino/het florida softshell lol....My parents have a house in florida surrounded by golf courses, i think my best bet is to scour every water source i can find looking for some potential breeders. My luck ill get eaten by a gator trying to net some turtles lol.... I'm also surrounded by snappers in ohio, caught many 25-40 pounders fishing for flatheads, should have kept them. Def. going to keep a closer eye out this year tho, a friend of mine has a small pond i can stash the parents in. Do you have any pics of your breeding setups/tanks for the snappers, Florida softshells get to about the same size so it should be pretty comparable.
 
well i have an old snake breeder looking for some albino turtles for me through his contants. i'll keep in touch if your looking for anything special. Funny this guy just started working for my dad a few months ago, he bred albino cobras over 10 years ago so im positive he has to know someone dealing with turtles. fingers crossed lol
 
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