Posted by:
LSD
at Wed Oct 17 10:05:04 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by LSD ]
When boas are courting, there's not much that disturbs them. Once they start, they'll be no doubt as to what they're doing. They only have one thing on their minds and that's what they do. My boas breed more aggressively at night. I'm not sure how people cool their boas, so I really don't know what you mean by "cooling". Giving them a natural photo period, daylight and night time, is about all I do. I continue to feed, clean, change water daily, and check temps regularly. My boas have been breeding for about 6 weeks now. I never cooled or stopped offering food. If my boas stop eating, and they do eventually, it's their choice and not mine.
I keep a constant hot spot for my boas that's 92 degrees. I don't heat the room their in, so I guess the air temps cool slightly, but not much. My males started producing sperm in late August. I know this because they were leaving it all over their cages and in the water bowls. On Sept 4th I paired up my boas. They've been going at it like weasels ever since. Shortly after introduction most of them started shed cycle. There were a few that didn't, but they shed shortly before I put them together. They slowed down on breeding a bit, when they were in shed, but they never stopped. As soon as they shed, they started breeding more aggressively.I clean my cages about twice a week. I have those brown liners, so I have to remove my boas from the cages to clean. I have to wait for them to take a break from breeding, which they do shortly after the light go on. About an hour after the lights go on they're right back to breeding, so I have to clean any cages that need it quickly. They resume breeding immediately when I return them to their cages. It might take 3 minutes, but the males go right back to it. I don't stop feeding my boas, but I only offer half what they usually get. My female boas are only fed every 2 weeks. They only get 2 large rats for a normal feeding, so it's only 1 large rat, every 2 weeks, during breeding season. The females normally stop eating after the ovulations. Sometimes they'll take 1 meal after the POS. During breeding season I change their water daily. Normally I don't do it 2 or 3 times a week. I change it daily during breeding season to encourage them to drink more water, which they do. They drink a lot and pass urates, so I have to clean more often. It would probably be better if they had fresh water daily all year long. I just get busy after the babies are born and I normally go back to 2 or 3 times a week.
Here's a picture of one of my females. SHe's got a swelling, but I don't think it's an ovulation. I guess it could be a pre-ov swelling, but I'm not sure. Her last meal was in late Sept, because we were gone for a while and I wouldn't be there to clean. I didn't want them to poop, when I wasn't there to clean it up.
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