This is one for the record books. So I have this female Pearlescent that has been bred consistently for the past two years. Bred hard each year by young and inexperienced fellows who I am hoping have made up for their youth with enthusiasm and vigor. This past March 16th she had a really nice Slow Motion Ovulation A nice long one that takes more than a day total. No massive football just a nice tight "Slow Mo-O". I am very happy about this. So now begins the wait right? The long long wait for those babies that we all love. She goes into a shed just like the book says right? She shed a long time after that ovulation on April 10th, some 25 days after the observed ovulation. Then she begins the proper gestation of those babies right? Wrong. Instead of sitting on the heat she sits on the shelf above the heat. OK, so many of my females with shelves do this but, they all have heat that radiates down from the cage resting on top of their cage. This female is in a top cage. No additional heat on top of the cage for her to have radiate down upon her back. So I take this as a bad sign. This is probably not going to be a good litter. Two or two and a half months into the gestation period, she is not very big. Not very big at all. I am depressed. I think the worst and begin to project the date that those inevitable slugs will be coming. I think around July the 4th actually because of the long time between the ovulation and the Post Ovulation Shed respectively. No slugs came. She had not eaten since before the ovulation by the way. Almost every female that gives birth to babies here will eat during the gestation period. In fact nearly every female that gives slugs, will not eat while gravid. I don't know why. This is just another sign to me, that she in fact is carrying slugs. But they don't show themselves on time.
So on July 15th I think she may be going opaque. Well if she does go into a shed, that settles it. There will be no slugs from her this year, and certainly not any babies. The 16th confirms it as those eyes are more cloudy proving the inevitable bad breeding this was again. I have given up hope. So I am not even checking her 8 times a day any more. Why should I? I am just waiting for her to shed so I can feed her again and get her ready for another try this next year right? Well yesterday I check her and she is stuck in that shed. It is off her head and part of her belly but that's it. So, time for a good soaking. I fill her water bowl four times each time dumping the contents all over her ample aspen on the area below the shelf. This is about noon. In about two hours the cage is foggy or the Plexiglas front is completely fogged up. I check her again around 2:00 PM, and she has completely shed. Good deal. Since she is a nasty bugger and like her mother the original Monster Tail, I would rather not have to deal with her and help get that stuck skin off. So I am happy about that. I am not even thinking babies mind you. No way. So around 5:00 PM as I happen to be feeding the masses that day, I offer her a rat. She is on the dry shelf now. The soaked aspen is below, she has moved up there to get away from the moisture I guess. Looking over the edge of that shelf I know she is going to grab the chubby rat I am offering her, right? Nope. Oh crap! Now she doesn't want to eat. So now I have something else to worry about right? But I lay the rat up on the shelf in what I am sure is a futile hope that she will actually eat it later.
Around 8:00 PM I look at her again and the rat is gone! Oh happy day! At least she is eating and will return to her normal nasty self for sure the next time I offer a rat and begin getting her ready for next year. Then just before I get off the ladder I notice her tail in that peculiar position. You know that position where it is kinked hard to the right or left at the cloaca? You know how you often see them just before they give birth to babies? I figured she was just tormenting me as she had been for months. Just a funny coincidence that she had her tail like that. I really did not think of it again until... until I was making my rounds this morning and turning up the Boas heat for the day. Of course the cage door is still dripping water but through the murky dark view I have inside that cage I see something that is a very real sign of something I was not expecting. The aspen on the shelf is all pushed up against the edge of the shelf with some of it actually spilling over. This means she was pushing the aspen around. This is occasionally done but pretty rarely by Boas without any particular reason. It is however the norm for Boas who are "making a nest" in which to deposited young! Uh on... Now my heart is pounding! I mean pounding! I run to the back isle where my step ladder is. The stool I normally use is not tall enough to allow me to see up over the edge of the shelf and I am going to need to see over the edge of that shelf! It jambs! Stupid ladder! Doesn't it know I am in a mad rush! I try again to get it to close up so I can move in into isle number 4, which is where those babies might be.
Finally it moves. I get that puppy folded and I'm off! I rush down the isle and over the last stack on the left and that top cage. Cage number 4L44 where that Pearlescent female awaits. I rush up the ladder, unlatch the door and begin to open it. She swings! I mean she swing around to see what in the world do I think I am doing now!? She has the defense of her mass of goo and who knows what else in mind as I try to get a better look while avoiding her teeth. I can see one! There is one baby in that back right corner with his nose climbing to the top of the cage! YES! Babies!!! Where's my glove!? I scamper down the ladder now in a frenzy looking for that snowmobile glove I use to grab females and remove them from the cage after babies are born. I have done this a few times and have yet to get nailed. I didn't want this to be the first time either. I find it on the window sill and run back up that ladder. She is waiting for me still. But I am usually faster than my Boas and occasionally smarter than them. Course it helps that they have such poor eye sight. I grab her, wrestle her off the shelf and to a clean empty cage. Hew! Now back up the ladder to check on those puppies!
Peering over the edge I see them in all their glory! A small litter with only 12 babies, 7 slugs and 3 preemies. No wonder she never looked that huge. But the babies! Oh yea! I am very pumped about these kids to be sure. Here are a few pictures of them to enjoy...
believe me. I am NOT complaining!
Looks like I will have to update some more of the Boa breeding information as I certainly read the book to this Boa and she still did her own thing. Do I look unhappy about it though? NOT!
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