I was watching the Florida/Ole Miss game and during the first commercial checked on the snakes and found that Rainy had begun laying her litter. In this PIC the first baby has just been delivered.
About an hour later most of the litter had been delivered and Rainy was eating the slugs. Rainbow Boas often eat slugs either while they are delivering or soon after. This may be a natural adaptation to regain lost fat stores or may be to prevent slugs from rotting and creating an odor which could attract predators to the litter. This second idea may have little merit because females, at least in captivity usually do not eat all of the slugs.
The babies are ready to fend for themselves and crawl away within a few hours of being born.
Total count for this litter is five males and five females and five slugs. The babies are big. One male is 19 inches long and weighs 35 grams. Most of the rest of the litter is 18 to 18.5 inches long and weighs 30 to 33 grams. The mother of the litter is Rainy. Rainy (named by my granddaughter) was born here in 2003. I never observed any males courting Rainy this year. Rainy was with several different males from january through april. I did not keep track of shed dates for any of my female BRBs this year. I did not realize Rainy was gravid until early june when she had been off feed for awhile and looked slightly lumpy. A couple of times during the summer I palpated and was able to count all 15 lumps in her.
GO GATORS!!!
Jeff
