Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a female that had a litter of premature babies last season. The litter consisted of eight "fully" formed babies and twelve slugs. She delivered the litter approximately two weeks before the 105 day mark.

My question is can a female that delivers early like this have a tendency to repeat premature delivery. I know there are alot of variables that could affect the birthing process. I am wondering if anyone has experienced or heard of a female delivering early more than once. Is it a fluke, could it have to do specifically with the female, could it be the temperature etc., or is it just nature? In this particular case she was pretty much consistently at 86 degrees during gestation. She had the gradient to be warmer or cooler. This is where she kept herself.

I have a big and beautiful boa that I really don't want to risk any potential harm to. The premature litter did not really seem to take much of a toll on her, at least visually. She was also checked out by my reptile vet recently and all signs are good. She is rock solid again and could breed this season. However, she doesn't need to, especially if she may need another year???

I would love to hear from anyone who has input, experience, or information on this. It would also be nice to hear from some of the old timers. Those who consistently produce litters and who have been breeding for a while.

Here she is.

Thanks for any input.

Steve Ihrig - sdi

I do not have a TON of experience with premature births but we did have a female who last year gave us a bunch of slugs and 5 preemies, and this year she gave us a perfect litter of 32 with NO slugs or stills. So I guess that my experience is that if your female is healthy and ready, I'd say give her another shot this season.

Denny

I kind of figured that it may be ok. I have this beautiful boa that I don't want to harm so I am hoping for some more feed back. The reason this question came about is that I have heard of individuals and actually have a friend that has been told by the doctor that giving birth is dangerous for them. Basically that their body rejects pregnancy. I was wondering if this can occur in snakes. I would suspect that this has something to do with first time pregnancy or something outside of a human understanding. However, I am hoping for some more experiences to draw on.

Thanks for your reply!

I'm unsure how it flies with boas but the same thing happens to my wife when she has children.. Our first child was 4 weeks early and our second was 5 weeks early.. The doctor said she will never go full term and is likely to become even more premature with each child.. She's 6' and normally 135lbs, she gains 20-25lbs during each pregnancy. The doctor said her body just pushes the kids out early because it won't handle the stress. Some "females" must not be built to go full term.

Take care