Linda,

I know Celia usually replies to these posts but she thought it may be better if I went in on this one just to share a little experience that I have gained this season. So here it goes...

First off I have found that most all of our female boas are resistant to copulation efforts until their follicles mature to about 20-25mm (2-2.5 cm) I have found myself not really even bothering with breeding females under 20mm most of the time. The follicles will continue to mature to about 35-40mm and then ovulation occurs. Most females don't mature at the same rate. It has been my understanding that many other breeders see a lot of consistency with follicular development in their animals, I feel that I don't. Some females will grow their follicles at 2mm/week and others can grow as fast as 8-10mm/week. I find the fastest growth occurs after the eggs becomes vitellogenic (which is the process of an egg forming its yolk) which is best indicated on the ultrasound by the color of the follicles going from a solid black (nonvitellogenic) to the color white with a dark gray - black tracing around it (vitellogenic). Before they go vitellogenic they seem to grow a steady 1mm/week but afterwards they seem to grow at a much faster rate.

My main question for you Linda is... how close to the cloaca are the follicles. Do they still appear to be held in the ovaries? I'm sure you and your Dr. already know this but if the follicles have descended all the way down to the cloaca then ovulation has already occured and if the eggs don't appear to grow and develop then they may all be infertile. If they have not decended, this brings forth my second question... How large are her largest follicles?

As for you wanting to breed these girls a certain time of year... I can't blame you! However it seems to me, this season, that I have little control over this process even though I cool and light cycle my animals differently. As of right now it looks as if we will have babies as early as April and as late as October! We might as well be breeding boas all year long at this rate. It has been very interesting to see boas that were housed in the same racks with the same temperature drops and photoperiods developing follicles at many different times this season. I always thought that boas were more "cycled" breeders that had consistent results. I guess I was wrong!

I hope that your girl does well. I also hope that the x-rays aren't harmful to the potential offspring (I'm sure you guys looked into that.) I would really like to know what happens with this situation as I'm sure the rest of the KS Boa Forum readers would also.

Good Luck...
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Sean Bradley
Owner : EbN
www.ExoticsByNature.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

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