Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey Ian, and anyone else following along,

Freya gave birth yesterday, appropriately, on Imbolc ("from the belly", a day when serpents, as well as groundhogs, come out of their hole. We have (I think--slime was in the way)25 live Columbian boas and we had 4 slugs (one of which I think mama ate since I accidently left it in with her too long). Nothing deformed as we did with Odin. And since Freya is a high pink and I had thought, salmon, there was a complete lack of any pink babies. If salmon is a co-dominant gene, I guess she don't got it.

Freya's backbone was starting to show. I was advised here and on the boa forum to start her back easy, so yesterday we gave her two large (?) male rats yesterday after she gave birth. She's still agitated and I'm not sure if she's pissed about us taking the babies, or hungry. I have her usual food (RodentPro xxxl guinea pig) thawed in the fridge. Is it too soon to give her that too?

One baby has some need striping in the tail-- it may be a keeper, despite the IBD risk. And without pink babies, I may try to hold onto Freya a bit longer...though she was exhibiting a URI again recently. We're going to take pictures today, just in case we have to take everyone to the vet to be put down tomorrow.
Yesterday and today I was just enjoying the magic of birthing boas Btw---are breach births normal for live snakes? So many came out that way.

Be well,
Antigone

I would wait at least a few days for that guinea pig. Especially since she's active and pissy you don't want her to regurgitate. Breach birthing means nothing to boas. They come out as they come out I also had a striped boaling; named Racer. I was especially sour when the IBD claimed him. He's on top, with one of the peaches on the bottom left, and a normal on the bottom right. While I call this the peach line, most "proffessionals" have called them pastels or super pastels or something along those lines. The photo was taken before IBD intruded, so some of these guys did go on to a happy life.

Ian

Ian:

You had cute pookies...sorry IBD got your Racer. I was hoping that Widj (my bf) would have replied to you with pix of our pookie, Brigid/Fidgit (depending on what sex it turns out to be), but I guess I'll have to bug him later.

The babies were born 2/2/08. The final count was 28 live, 4 slugs. Yesterday I had all but one, Brigid/ Fidgit, put down. I think we're going to hold onto this one as long as we can.

Mama Freya ate 2 med to large rats on Sat after giving birth, and then we did actually go ahead with feeding her the guinea pig on Sunday. She took a VERY long time to eat it-- actually sitting just biting its head for over an hour without progressing. I thought her jaw was stuck.

Sadly, I had been noticing her breathing at the end of the pregnancy. We hiked up the humidifier, and I like to think it helped a bit. But I noticed that she would deep breathe, then do several shallower breaths. Last night, without any background noise, I really heard her. Loud and clear. There's no mucus out her nose, and it doesn't seem to be quite as labored as Midnight was at the end, but she is putting a lot of effort. Not propping her head up a lot either. Strange.

While I regret not bringing her to be put down with the babies yesterday, I know that if possible I would have been even MORE of a basketcase than I was. Her appointment is now on Saturday 10 am. I plan to take lots of pictures before then.

I understand that this baby may still succumb to IBD, and that keeping it puts our ball python at risk. So I plan to handle the ball first whenever possible.

Thanks for reading my "books" and for helping me through this.
Antigone

Ian:

How old were your babies when IBD got them?

Antigone

It's been a while. If I recall, about 6 months?

Ian:

This is our baby: Brigid/ Fidgit

(hoping that worked). It doesn't have nearly the striping your Racer did, but for us, it is a lot.

I take Freya in to the vet tomorrow morning. We had her out tonight and took lots of pictures. It was nice to have some time with her out of the tank to say goodbye.

Antigone

It is a bitter way to end things ain't it? Are you keeping that one in the picture? I still have 2 baby survivors that are forever labeled as "IBD exposed" as well as the mother. They are all doing well and if they never show symptoms, I"ll never know if they have it or not. I hope your one has the same luck as my survivors. lol, life long quarantine only sounds bad

Ian

Ian:

Mama Freya went quietly to the vet this morning. I hope that her death went smoothly and quickly. Our vet said that we're her most heart-wrenching customers/patients...we've had to bring her 3 adult red-tails, 50 baby red-tails, and a rat to be put down since Thanksgiving.

Hopefully that's over. Yes we're keeping that baby. I like our vet, but I'm in no hurry for her to meet our baby.

This is Hopey, our ball python:

This is Freya, DOD this morning:

So we were at a Reptile Expo in Havre de Grace, MD today. We are now the new owners of a cute baby female bloodred cornsnake (het for albino, not like I care), a cute baby female licorice stick rat snake, and a 8 month old male crested gecko (also very cute). No chance of IBD.

I'm hoping they all stay around for a good while. Thank you again.
Antigone