On Sunday, July 18, 2010, a pair of Pucallpa Peruvian Red Tail Boas that I had obtained about five years ago gave birth to what was quite a surprise to me. I tracked these Boas back through two previous owners to the fellow who produced them down Texas Way. Gus at Rio Bravo produced these yellow beauties and was very generous in confirming and answering my questions. Thanks Gus!
Here are those two Boas prior to when I received them:
The Daddy:
The Mommy:
I was fortunate to obtain these from Mike and Tracy from Jungle Struck who took these pictures. They had gotten the pair from Bill Parks. Bill bought them from Gus himself.
Here are the two of them in passionate embrace five or six months ago:
Then here is the female ovulating, while he is making sure she does not get away.
She spent her entire gestation period doing everything exactly by the book. I was looking forward to this litter more than any other this season because, as some of you know, Yellow Peruvian Red Tails have been my favorite for more than 20 years and making some babies from a pair of yellow adults has alluded me... till now.
July 18th was her 110th day after her textbook Post Ovulation Shed (POS) date. She had been a bit restless the day before and Sunday morning she was making a nest in the Aspen in the back left corner of her home. Upon checking her later that same day at just after 1:00 PM, my daughter let me know that the Peruvian had delivered the babies. I was right there with my video camera interviewing her while she checked for me.
When I came around the corner and peered in, I almost needed to rub my eyes as if I might be seeing things. At first I was a little speechless, which is unusual for me, looking back and forth and having thoughts flash through my head... what!? What in the world!
I truly thought that I had had a new morph drop out of the sky and land in my Boaphile cage, much to my delight. In less than a half hour from that time, after a talk with Bigg Mike of Basically Boas, I realized I probably had the same mutation pop up here, that Gus at Rio Bravo was the first to produce in a litter in 2005 or 2006. Gus has dubbed these "Hyperpigmented" Boas. Mine are really dark! At least my examples of them are right now especially when they were still covered in baby Boa Goo. Some folks have said that mine are darker than the others they have seen. I don’t really know, but I don't care either way. I'm just really happy to have the only known mutation in Peruvian Red Tails to have popped up in this great litter I was looking forward to so much! It is the proverbial icing on the cake!
I have always loved really dark Peruvians too, though not as much as the yellow ones... Now I have even more reason to love them don't I? These are Pucallpa Peruvian Red Tail Boas. Not all Pucallpa Peruvians look like these, but a lot of Gus' Peruvians have that bright yellow I have envied from afar for a long time. I have had a number of the really yellow Peruvians over the years, but this is the first time I successfully bred a pair of them. It was a very good day here at the Boa Black Hole this past Sunday!
There were sixteen perfect babies of which four are “Hyperpigmented” critters! This is the same ratio with which Gus has had them occur. We believe this to be a simple recessive mutation like Albinism and Blood Boas. It’s own wonderful expression in these Peruvians has me scratching my big bald head now contemplating future Peruvian breeding projects. I do look forward to making more in the future and find myself feeling really happy that I already have a number of additional Pucallpa Peruvians to start outcrossing some of these kids with, in a few years. One other female that I think may actually be from the same bloodline too...
Just for clarification; I have no intention of ever breeding this new mutation into any other locality of Boa. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not know me very well. I am one of those unique Boa guys who continues to be pulled back to my roots of breeding locality Boas. I have been breeding Boas for more than 25 years and didn't obtain my first morph deliberately, until I had been doing this for ten years. I have never stopped the locality stuff and have quite a few locality Boas that I still maintain and enjoy. It’s just that now I will have to make a more concerted effort with the Peruvians I do have. I hope this litter as well as the extremely beautiful Yellow Peruvians Gus makes, serve to inspire other closet Peruvian fans to really focus on this, the absolutely most “Handsome” of Boa Constrictors!
Enough of my dribble… how about a ton of pictures!
This is what I found in the cage:
These babies are humoungous! They are 120-140 grams each. A more typical size is less than 70 grams each. Here is one next to an average sized baby Boa. The one in the membrane is perfect by the way. It just had not ventured out yet when I took this picture. She broke out about ten minutes after this.
I REALLY like this one too!
It's ironic in a way that these babies were born up here. I may be the furthest North Boa breeder, the longest distance from both the locality they originate from, and where their captive born parents were produced down in South Texas! Now I just have to wait 3 or 4 more days for them to shed! The anticipation is killing me!!! LOL
I know. I can wait...
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Jeff Ronne Sr
The Boaphile
Director USARK
Originator of Boaphile Plastics
The Boaphile Boa Site
