This year, we bred our Hypo female to our male Motley Boa. This is one of this sesaon's breedings that we have been anticipating most. This is the same female that gave us our awesome litter of Hypo Jungles last year and those babies came out looking SO great that we were hoping to have the same kind of results with the Motley!
We first ultrasounded the female Hypo on October 19, 2005. She had 17mm follicles so we threw our male Motley in with her ASAP. On October 21, 2005, we witnessed a copulation. On November 2, 2005, we ultrasounded again and she was now at 23mm. The male stayed with her and we witnessed courting activity on November 16th and another copulation the very next day. We ultrasounded her again later on that day and she was at 26mm. One more ultrasound session on November 30th revealed follicular size at 32mm.
On December 9, 2005, she ovulated and had her POS December 27, 2005. We ultrasounded her again later on that day and were able to confirm that she was indeed gravid from the ultrasound results.
So then we started counting and waiting. I had her 105th day POS marked down as April 11, 2006. As the months went by, she swelled quite a bit and we had our hopes up and fingers crossed for a nice litter of Hypo Motleys.
The season got off to a very rocky start. Our female Albino Arabesque that was bred by our male Motley unexpectedly and suddenly died at the beginning of February. We're not quite sure what happened with her although we think it had something to do with complications during the pregnancy. Her follicles were odd appearing on the ultrasound. They looked the way follicles did after they were already fertilized but, they only appeared to be half the size of a normal fertilized follicle/egg. I looked in on her one evening and she had her back end rotated to the side like we often see gravid females sitting to relieve pressure on certain areas of their body or to adjust the babies inside. The next day when I checked on her, she was dead.
So we were very upset at not only the loss of the babies, but the loss of the female.
Our first female for the season was due on March 29, 2006. She had been bred by the Jungle and was a first time mom for us. We aquired her from someone locally who could not keep her but didn't have any history on the animal so I don't know how old she is or if she has ever produced babies before.
On her 100th day POS, she gave birth to a litter of slugs - 28 slugs all together. We were very surprised by this because she went almost completely full term with a litter of slugs. We would have expected her to give birth much earlier since they were all slugs. Another big let down. But this time, I said, "Hey - at least the female is okay and we can always try again with her next year!"
On to litter #2 - this litter was from a breeding between our male Sharp Albino het. Anery to a normal female. We were looking forward to some 100% Het. Sharp possible het. Anery babies.
On the 101st day POS, she gave birth prematurely or accidentally - 1 slug and 7 stillborns with some of the babies not fully formed. We think this might have been an accidental premature birth because she also released her waxy stool at the same time. We think she was possibly just trying to pass the waxy stool and wasn't able to hold the babies in.
On her 106th day POS, she gave birth to the rest of the litter - 18 slugs, and 10 babies. Of the 10 babies, only three made it and the others were stillborn. Of the three that survived, one has a slight kink, one has a very miniscule underbite, and the third is perfect. All three are female and will be staying here with us!
Whew - that was rough!
Now back to this litter. So as you can see, the season was pretty rocky to start out with and we were REALLY hoping to turn things around with this litter!
Today, the 107th day POS, our Hypo female gave birth! The final count for the litter...
Hypo x Motley litter results =
8 Hypo Jungle
7 definite Jungles
2 Normals
3 kinked/deformed still born Hypo Jungles
3 kinked/deformed Jungles
14 slugs
No, the above is NOT a typo! Apparently, the female Hypo retained sperm from her last breeding with our male Jungle back in approximately January of 2005! Even though we witnessed copulation between her and our male Motley on two separate ocassions, she used the retained sperm from the Jungle male for whatever reason.
I have heard of this happening in the past with several other breeders. However, it just blows my mind! It certainly would account for the high slug count in the litter though!
We were fortunate enough to be able to see the entire birthing process. As the babies were being born, I remember thinking, "Wow, she's got an awful lot of slugs this year." And then I remember thinking, "Hmmm...I don't see any Motleys...??"
At first, we thought a couple of the Hypo Jungles were possibly Hypo Motleys because we weren't exactly sure what the Hypo gene would do to the Motley pattern. I know some of the Hypo Motleys that were produced in the past have some pretty wacky patterns and weren't really your traditional perfect, hurricane circle Motleys. But as more babies were born, it took us a few minutes to realize what had happened here.
Our first reaction was an incredible disappointment at not producing any Hypo Motleys. However! this litter is really quite amazing for a couple of different reasons...
1.) The Hypo female used retained sperm from a year ago to fertilize this litter which resulted in 17 healthy babies.
2.) Upon first (pre-shed) examination, it appears as if ALL of the Hypos are Hypo Jungles. We'll be able to further evaluate and re-evaluate them after they shed and put on some size/age.
3.) The coloration on these babies is insane. The Hypo Jungle babies GLOW orange and pink. I do not remember the babies we produced last year looking like this immediately post birth. Even the regular Jungle babies are very different looking with TONS of color. It looks like all the regular Jungles have lots of red/pink coloration "bleeding" through the gray/ivory background color.
4.) There are quite a few babies with really WACKY patterns - especially the normals/regular Jungles. There are a couple of Jungles with extremely high saddle counts - one baby in particular with 32 saddles (including tail saddles) alltogether! Almost every single one has crazy head patterns too. One baby in particular has an extremely dark and distinct cross on its head with two squiggly lines coming up either side. Our friend Vincent and his son were here while the babies were being born and they nicknamed that baby "Devil head" LOL. One of the Hypo Jungle's has spots all over its head (that one has been dubbed "Leopard Head"
.
5.) And here's a strange kicker to top it all off - EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE BABIES ARE FEMALES! What?!? That's right! I sexed them each three times. I even sexed all the still born and deformed ones that I could (I couldn't sex three of them because their tails were kinked too badly). So we're talking about 17 babies and 3 still borns.
What are the chances of getting a litter of ALL females??? About as good as the chances of the litter being sired by retained sperm from a year ago you might say!!
HAHA!!
This has been, by far, the MOST interesting breeding experience we have had with Boas. It just goes to show you that you can never know what to expect with these gorgeous, amazing creatures!!
And now for the photos.............................................................................................
A few birthing photos where I'm saying - "Where are the Motleys?"
More photos in the next thread (I'm breaking the photos up for people on dial-up because their are SO many of them!).
To be continued.........................................................................................................
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Celia Chien
Celia Chien Photography
www.BoaConstrictorMorphs.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com
