Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if some of you breeders could give me an idea what percent of your litters seem to be slugs. I know it varies, but I have seen alot of pics with quite a few slugs. I have not been breeding boas real long, but this year for example out of 5 litters I had a total of 5 slugs. all of my boas were between 18mos and 3 years when they bred. All were quite heavy before cooling. Anyone have ideas what factors are involved. I have heard age plays a role, but I no longer believe that. Any help or ideas would be appreciated. Craig Kade

A few observations I have made and read about. Lack of belly heat may contribute to the problem. Not having enough water available throughout the gestation may be a factor. In my own breedings I have found that the proportion of female to male babies is much higher female wise when there are alot of slugs. One well known breeder spoke about this in his Reptiles Magazine article we all refer to..."Revelations of a Boa Breeder". The jury is still out on why this seems to work out like this. Any other breeders observations would be welcome here....Thanks for asking this question.................
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Richard -amazoa-

"Changes in behavior occur when the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of change."

Well, we had a litter consisting of 22 live babies and 13 slugs last year which had 16 females and 6 males in it. In a dumerils litter this past season one female had 8 live babies and 6 slugs. That count was 6 females and 2 males. Water was available to the females at all times as well as proper temps. I would think in the large BCI litter situation the male simply wasn't able to fertilize all the ova developed by the female. Maybe this is why females are capable of being fertilized by more than one male. It all just might be mother natures way! Good topic, take care!

Paul

very interesting topic, ok heres my small time breeding experiences

in 2000 my 91/2 female was bred by my male and she had 26 babies and 4 slugs now with this she was 10 yrs old at her first breeding her ratio was as follows
19 females
7 males

Now last year the she was bred again by the original father and also spent time with a new male introduced to her as i had had heard that they could be fertilized by two males now both males were drastically different in appearanceone being dark salmon colored ( not a salmon ) andthe other was a very clean light male . well in march she gave birth to a HUGE litter IMO of 42 babies 2 still born and 2 slugs her ratio was as follows
Females - 28
males-14
the two still born were also males. now with that said the babies all varied greatly approx 1/2 the females were very dark and had the colors of the dark father , the other half were virtually speckeless and very light like the other male .

all the males except 3 were very clean and light as well so this made me think that both males had fertilized the female and resulted in the litter varying in color and cleanlyness(sp) unfortunately 2 weeks after this litter my old girl passed away and one other thing that was a grace was that she had gotten a bad RI in december dut to a 4 day powerloss in sub 20 degree weather i had actually figures three things would have happened one she would have absorbed the eggs and not give birth , or slug out totally and worst case she would have passed away dueto the URI. well i was greatly appreciative of her duty of being a mother that she was able to give me so many healthy babies due to what she went through. like a idiot i kept only one for myself but i must say she was by far the best in the litter i sent i/2 the litter to my breeding partner Babyslither in cali for her loan of the young clean male to breed to the female .. heres her sexxy lil girl i kept

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Buisnesses come and go everyday, what keeps you here is how you treated the customer the day before....

same female

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Buisnesses come and go everyday, what keeps you here is how you treated the customer the day before....

I like the lateral striping, since we're on the "why" topic concerning boas, do you suppose the somewhat abberant saddles and lateral striping may have been due to the 4 day drop in temps during gestation? I have a very niced striped male and two of his female siblings that have abberant patterns and minimal striping. They were produced by two normal boas that the owner "cooled" half-way during gestation not knowing she was already gravid. There were only 3 striped boas in the litter of I think 20 some babies, and a couple abberant ones. At this point though I credit all the abberancies to the cooling period the breeder did. What do you think caused your striping, and were there others like the female you held back? The litter I mentioned in my previous post produced a het albino female with the same lateral striping near the tail...equal on both sides, and some lateral striping on the front third of the snake as well. She was the ONLY abberant baby in the litter though. Thanks for the info, sorry you lost your female. Take care!

Paul

Hey Paul ,
at this point i cant really say what cuased her lat striping, there was one female and one male that had this and then there were aslo 4 males that had connecting saddles on the tail ( this was like a weave pattern on the tails these all went to a dear friend) the other female had alot less lat striping then this one did . so while i would like to think it may be gentic i cant say with accuarcy that it is untill she breeds ? both males had no striping as she shows however the old male breeder has "some" tail striping and ill use that term loosely as it could be also called just a long tail saddle. so for now i can only go on a hope and a prayer that it might be gentic.. but none the less wether it is or aint ... lol shes going to make a very good adult as she just keeps amazing me w / each shed . and even if she isnt shes a female and in my mind that means that she juuuuust might carry on the BIG baby producing genes her mom had which would be just fine with me ... lol ill have no quams in feeding 30-40 babies lol i will keep her growth and all posted as she stands right now other then my salmontines she is my favorite snake due to where she came from .... even beats out my male 100% het albino 66% stripe kahl ... so go figure ... just goes to show that even a absolutly normal BCI can be a totally beautiful snake and be het for notta lol
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Buisnesses come and go everyday, what keeps you here is how you treated the customer the day before....

NP.