Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For the third year in a row, I've observed mating, but nothing is coming of it. My male let go a couple sperm plugs in the water bowl, and kept mating a LOT, but nothing. Looks like next year I'll be in the market for a new male, sadly.
Congrats to everyone who has had babies I'm jealous
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Jess
1.2 adult BRBs (Sango, Copper, Cherry)
0.1 Sub-adult BRBs born 6/18/06 my first litter(Isis)
1.0 african brown house snake (Nellie)
1.0 Baird's Ratsnake (Poker)
1.0 Kitty that likes watching the snakes (Tucker)

Jess,
...Such is the frustration of breeding Rainbow Boas. I had my first Peruvians mating and leaving sperm samples in the water bowl and on cage furniture for many years without producing a live baby. Introduction of other males to the mix finally did produce nice litters. You are faced with a couple possibilities. Perhaps your male is just a sport model and never will produce viable sperm. Perhaps you are cooling for too short or too long a period or too cool or too warm. What to do, what to do? OTOH, perhaps the female is the problem. If this was easy we would all produce so many babies that we would have to give them away.
Jeff

I would think it wouldn't be too hard to get a sperm sample from the male to see how many swimmers he has...Talk to your vet, it probably won't cost alot...and if you have a calm snake, I doubt he would even need to use any anesthesia. I believe sperm cells in snakes would be big enough to see with a standard lab microscope.
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PHLdyPayne

>>I would think it wouldn't be too hard to get a sperm sample from the male to see how many swimmers he has...Talk to your vet, it probably won't cost alot...and if you have a calm snake, I doubt he would even need to use any anesthesia. I believe sperm cells in snakes would be big enough to see with a standard lab microscope.
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>>PHLdyPayne

Het Jess, sorry to hear you're not having much luck. Not much to add other than how old is your male? I don't remember him being that old so likely not an issue.

Of course another male would be a good idea. Genetic diversity and not depending on a single animal for all your mating.

I have bred as many as four females in one your to one male (90 babies later) but had problems the following year so have scaled it back to breeding trios or pairs.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Jess, sorry to hear about your dud year! My first couple years trying to breed BRBs were flops and man was I frustrated! So in a way, I feel your pain. Do you just have the one male for your female(s)?
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Yeah, I know my female is fine, she produced two healthy litters for me before. I have just had bad luck with males. Two died completely randomly, and now this one, although he's a gorgeous orange color, is shooting blanks. Already called my vet and they didn't want to aid an amateure breeder. I suppose the next sperm plug I find, I could take a look at myself, but I am assuming that like humans, the sperm die after a given amount of hours.
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Jess
1.2 adult BRBs (Sango, Copper, Cherry)
0.1 Sub-adult BRBs born 6/18/06 my first litter(Isis)
1.0 african brown house snake (Nellie)
1.0 Baird's Ratsnake (Poker)
1.0 Kitty that likes watching the snakes (Tucker)