.....she finally let them go. I have watched for days as Rosy struggled to hold back the growing brood of babies inside her. She did everything but tie her tail in a knot. Wednesday she spent the day cruising and nesting but still decided not to birth them. Yesterday, when I got home from school, my son and I saw the last two babies born at 4:30 pm. My younger son and daughter arrived shortly thereafter from the bus. We all marveled at the babies, most of them were still encased in their birth sacs. The kids kept commenting, "Dad, I think that one is dead". I told them to be patient....and as we watched...one by one....we would see the head of an upside down "dead" snake slowly emerge up through the coils and press its way through to the world. We got to see most of the babies draw their first breath. It was a wonderful, wonderful moment to share with them. This litter was even more meaningful to me because the mother was the first boa I purchased when I began my current collection. "Rosy" was purchased from Jim Peters at the Daytona 2000 show. She also produced a fine litter last year. After the birthing, I got her out and she was as sweet & gentle as ever. I had to congratulate her. She weighed in at 13.0 lbs. Her pre-breeding season weight was 16.0 so she will gain that back by summer. The final tally was 11 Motleys, 10 Normals, and 3 unfertilized. All the babies are in great condition. The Motleys look superb.
On the downer side, I was rushed before school this morning but I wanted to clean the birth fluids that were caked on the babies. I also wanted to clean out the bloody paper in their cage. I moved the babies to a container I use as a baby bathtub. They were incredibly active for their young age. I was turning my head to clean their cage and then turning back to catch one or two escaping from the "bathtub". I finally got the cage clean and took the bathtub down to the sink. I got them rinsed off and brought them back upstairs. I counted them going back in and I was missing a Motley and a normal. Did they escape when I turned my head?! At this point, I am already past the time when I need to leave in order to make the opening bell. Picture me as I'm scambling around the floor on my hands and knees looking for these babies. My kids are calling for me to leave and I'm sweating bullets. (You better not be laughing at me right now!). I don't see any babies and then I remembered that I hastily threw away the bloody newspaper from the cage. I go into the trash and search inside the newspaper and find a Motley buried deep inside. So I started my day by throwing a Motley in the trash. (I said stop laughing!). Searched the rest of the trash and no normal. My son has now joined the search. We couldn't find it. I'm just hoping that in my rush this morning I miscounted.
Ok, if you've read this far then you deserve some photos.
