hello everyone,could someone shed some light on where ive messed up, i have a female 7ft rtb over 4 years old,who i bread this season, everything was looking good and today at 103 days she gave birth to 27 premature babies and 5 slugs, all the babies still had thier yoke sacks attached and they were still pretty big, ive had the room temp between 80 to 84 with a hot spot of 88 and it was belly heat, and she spent most of the time in the hot spot, she ate regularly the whole time also.
any ideas would be helpfull, i dont want to repete this in the future. thanks JIM...
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i need help please
motofan
Jul 25, 2007 01:15 AM
Replies (3)
johnmartino
Jul 25, 2007 04:42 AM
It doesnt necessarily mean you did anything wrong. These things happen with boas. However your hot spot may not have ben hot enough. That may be why she spent most of her time on it and they cam out preemies. A spot of 92-94 may have been better. It could have been a little warmer allowing the babies to mature a little faster. JMO. John Martino
liquid-leaf
Jul 25, 2007 06:29 AM
When you say she "ate regularly" - did you feed her normal sized meals every week? Gravid females are supposed to be fed reduced size meals (and less often), and you shouldn't feed at all in the last month or so before the due date.
This is because a partially digested meal may cause the babies to be born prematurely - if there is a lot of waste passing through the snake, the snake can't easily defecate without squeezing hard enough to pop the babies out, or simply the pressure from having waste building up might cause premature birth.
Did any of the preemies survive?
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 BP, 1.0 Hog Is., 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 GTP
Sun_King
Jul 25, 2007 07:43 AM
In the future I would keep the hot spot between 90-95 degrees. This will allow her to thermoregulate as needed. She can go from hot to cooler as needed. Also I would ease off on the regular feeding while gravid. She should have small meals and they should be only every 3 weeks or so at the most. If they eat regular sized meals and are fed every week or two they will not have enough room in their belly for food and the babies. Hope this helps. How are the babies doing?
Joe
