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Thought this issue might have occurred with some of you breeding really large B.c. sp. specimens. Had a large female green anaconda drop young early yesterday morning. I am typically able to easily check on her two or three times per day with no problem. But yesterday I wasn’t able to check on her until late that evening. It had been almost 24 hours since I had last checked in on her. From the looks of the unit, it appeared that they had probably been born 15 to 20 hours earlier. There were 9 slugs, 16 live young, and 4 dead young that appeared to have been crushed by the female as she moved about the unit. All the dead were of normal length and weight, no visible abnormalities, and appeared to have been born healthy and alive. There were probably a few more slugs, but I could tell that she had eaten some, so I don’t have a full count on them. Was curious as to whether any of you had experienced this with really large females boas that had been with the young for an extended period after giving birth. I’m definitely not complaining however, as I am more than happy to see the successful birth of the others.

This is the third litter for this particular female since 2003. It was also the first breeding for the young male that I used which I had raised from a previous unrelated litter that Jud McClanahan and I produced in 2001 using a different captive born female and his large captive born male. Jud produced another litter of greens a few weeks ago. That litter and this one are both third generation captive bred and born greens, the first I believe to be actually documented in a private collection. The neonates are between 750 and 800 mm (29 to 31 inches) and are between 240 and 260 grams. They are all quite calm and none struck as they were pulled from the mothers unit. Below are a few photos showing the neonates and the four that didn’t make it with a few slugs. Thanks again for looking.

Kelly

CONGRATS, Kelly because Green Anacondas are NOT that easy to breed much less regularly as you do....TC

I have had a fair number of babies and here is my experience. I have not had a single baby that appeared to be squished by the Mom since I quit using newspaper. It did happen from time to time with the newspaper where I would find the baby smashed under the paper. Since I switched to Aspen, I have even left the mother in with the babies overnight many times just so I could see the Mom with the babies the following morning. No babies smooshed. I have also left the babies in with Mom for more than a week probably five times and once for about two weeks well after the babies shed. All this just to see the results. Several of these females were 8' Mommas that easily could have suffocated the little buggers.

In fact it is most interesting to watch the Mother. Though she isn't looking at the babies and certainly can't see everywhere she is sitting, she can feel those babies and will lift herself over them and crawl all around being ever so careful not to crush any of the little ones. It's really pretty amazing. When I've left them overnight, the Momma will be all coiled up with the babies within and all around those coils. On the cage bottom between the coils. Right in between the layers of Mom. On top of Mom. Crawling on Mom's head. But they stay very close to Mom and she watches over them like a Pit Bull. Makes for a little more excitement when it's time to get her out... LOL

When you found the dead neonates, were they under the newspaper? Just curious about that.
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You make a very good point and I can definitely see the advantage to a substrate that has a little flex to it and is not so unyielding. The newspaper substrate I use has many advantages, but obviously not when it comes to a birthing substrate for large boids. All four were found on top of the newspaper and none of the newspaper was disturbed or folded over. Thanks much for the information and for bringing it to everyones attention.

Kelly

Personally, I think these "crushed" babies that everyone says they get are just Stills that have been ran over a few times. I've never seen a Female intentionally sit on babies. My experience has been the opposite, in that the Female avoids body contact untill she settles back down. Then everyone piles back on. I just don't see why a Female would go through the process, just to kill off offspring in the end. Seems counter-intuative to me?
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with this female at 15 to 16 feet and at least a 175 pounds, the odds of crushing a neonate in a relatively small cage is definitely increased. This is especially so on an un-naturally hard substrate (Jeff's comment) and over an extended time period. She was actually laying on another neonate when I first walked up, but fortunately it was just a few feet back from the mothers head. I would think that this would be less likely with boa constrictors as the weight factor is much less. As I said, I would agree with you, and that with smaller boids, it is probably more likely that they are stillborn than crushed. And it is possible that these neonates were stillborn as well, but that just wasn't my impression after checking them out and looking at the situation. Thanks,

Kelly

Third Gen Anacondas, WOW!

Takes accomplishment to a whole new level as far as I am concerned and not to mention " complete dedication " to work successfully with a large Boide species as Greens.

Congrats again Kelly, on contributing something truly magnificent to this Hobby we love!

John J

the nice comments, I really appreciate it, especially when coming from such respected people in this field as yourselves.

Kelly

Awesome litter, huge congrats and too bad on the lost ones. Beautiful green anacondas!
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