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Common Boa question - unexpected babies!!
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by pygmybait on July 9, 2004
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My female Boa gave birth to 17 babies last night. I didn't even know that she was pregnant. I only had her in the same enclosure with the male for two days in October. Seems odd to me. Anyway, only 10 of the 17 survived. Is this normal?
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RE: Common Boa question - unexpected babies!!
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by pygmybait on July 9, 2004
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Also want to add that several of the dead babies were very deformed. One of them seems to have developed with his vicera outside of the body. Very strange...
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RE: Common Boa question - unexpected babies!!
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by Scootertrash on July 9, 2004
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I'm no expert but it seems that two days is all it takes. Lock me in a room with a woman for two days and the same could happen. As far as the deformities, I really don't know unless your female needed a certain temperature to gestate and the temp wasn't exactly right. Chock it up to luck, now you have some nice baby boas! Best of Luck
Clayton
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RE: Common Boa question - unexpected babies!!
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by pygmybait on July 9, 2004
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I know two days is PLENTY of time to do the nasty but I just was not prepared to find what I walked in on! You're right though - the babies are beautiful. I just don't want this to happen again. I want to be ready and make sure that I'm doing everything right ALL year.
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RE: Common Boa question - unexpected babies!!
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by Scootertrash on July 9, 2004
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Yeah, I know what you mean. It is nice to be prepared. When I was a kid, around 8 or so I had this little garter snake that I saved up and bought from a pet shop. Well, I came in one morning and the snake had given birth. Now mind you, I didn't have the first clue that a male had to be involved to fascilitate conception. I was so excited that I went to get one of my parents to show them. When we got back to the cage, my mother garter snake had eaten three of the babies. Talk about trauma for an 8 year old?
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RE: Common Boa question - unexpected babies!!
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by mattdammit on July 15, 2004
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Hi pygmybait,
Since you didn't knoe the female was gravid, you likely weren't using supplemental vitamins, right? A lot of stillborn/deformed babies are due more to calcium/vitamin deficencies during pregnacy. It is fairly unusual to have a succesful mating in 2 days, but it was just thae right time, I guess.
You mentioned doing better next time- try to "build up" the female before mating with supplements, and continue vitamin/calcium powder every other feeding until at least 4 feedings past birth ( female may still be depleted of calcium and minerals soon after birth). Also, I use supplement powders every 3-4 feedings year- round.
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RE: Common Boa question - unexpected babies!!
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by azazel418 on July 21, 2004
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try keeping them together year round, if the male is seperated during any period then introduced to the fem, he'll be more likely to attempt breeding. I usually seperate mine to induce this in the fall, usually for about two weeks, then put them back together. as far as defects in birth, my vote lies in temperature variation. I've lost entire broods due to fluctuations in temp. my last successful birthing I got 30 live babies, 2 slugs, and no deaths. last year all I got was 30 some odd slugs, do to a loss of an undertank heater that went unnoticed for three days ( my best guess as to the loss of the entire load) also, the temp has to be right at breeding time, or the sperm will either be cooked or die from to much cold.
If you really dont want to breed ( iknow its a pain and a year round job) then you might go with completely seperate enclosures, or getting the female out of the picture ( i,e, get rid of her) its much better for the fem's health to push out babies than slugs(infertilized eggs), and loads less stressful on her body... I've had the privilige of witnessing the first conception of all steps of the live birth,( and got some really great pictures!!) and also seeing the strain it put on the same snake to expell infertilized eggs. its a huge world of difference. I could tell that she was in severe pain when they weren't fertilized, she was writhing and tossing her whole body around, compared to the live birth, she was completely passive, and almost appeared as if she were sleeping.
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