Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We placed our male 100% het albino in with our female hypo. He is four feet plus or minus two or three inches either way. She is six feet plus or minus two or three inches either way. We don't think he is ready as he shows no interest in her at all. She displayed some curious behaviour though. Posterior of her vent went straight up in the air after a few minutes and formed a rough question mark. Slight protrusion was witnessed from her vent. Anyone have any thoughts on her behaviour? We took it as a sign of being in the mood or possibly a sign of saying "get away from me you perv!" LOL! We are leaning more towards the former than the later though. We put them together on a whim since it has been really cool in the house and it has been raining for the last two days.
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1.0 red phase western hognose
1.0 100% het albino columbian
1.0 pastel columbian
0.1 hypo columbian
0.1 guyana
1.2 jcp
1.0 irian jaya
1.3 normal balls
2.2 100% het pied balls
1.0 ghost ball
0.1 100%het ghost ball
0.1 pastel ball
1.0 granite al burm
0.1 granite het al burm
0.1 albino burm
0.2 tiger retics
0.0.2 tokay geckos
0.0.1 house gecko
0.0.1 sulcata tortoise
1.0 potbelly pig (Oscar)
1.0 pug (Frank)
1.1 pit bull terriers (Marlboro & Coco)
1.0 house cat (Kitty)
0.1 wife who puts up with me

are the two most important factors when trying to determine if a boa is ready to breed.

I always take a female "scenting" that cage as a positive sign. I've never had a litter produced where I didn't get that behavior. The opposite is true too, anytime I didn't see that behavior, no litter.

I have a question for you though. Just how "nice" are your het albino and hypo? I ask because I think you'll have extreme difficulty selling hypo poss het albinos and normals poss het albino. Those have been mass produced to a ridiculous extent. If you don't have extremely high quality animals, I'd pass on the pairing. Otherwise, you may find you have to hold back the entire litter (perhaps minus one or two) or sell them for about $20 each - thereby making them "disposable pets" and increasing the odds of them living a rough life.

jb
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com Site received a complete makeover! Check it out!

Thanks for the info. As far as classifying the offspring as disposable pets...That's easy to do if you don't care what happens to them. As far as selling them for twenty dollars...I think that was a little on the extreme side, don't you Jonathan? Even just a normal boa will still sell for $45-$75 a piece. A hypo typically goes for no less than $90. To tell the truth it's not about the money. I have been up and down financially plenty of times. Money comes and money goes. Once a pet leaves here for over a month, it is the responsibility of the owner. If the choose to get rid of it or can't take care of it, then they have the option of buy back on a percentage. If they choose to do something stupid and get into trouble or totally neglect the animal without our knowledge, there is very little that we as responsible keepers can do about it. That's how you end up with new legislature being drawn up and trying to pass through local, state, and federal government. That would be a seperate discussion though covering cause and effect of bad judgement and or disregard. Did not mean to be long winded or sound obtuse. Thanks for the information from both of you. BTW...no interest from the male so far.
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1.0 red phase western hognose
1.0 100% het albino columbian
1.0 pastel columbian
0.1 hypo columbian
0.1 guyana
1.2 jcp
1.0 irian jaya
1.3 normal balls
1.2 100% het pied balls
1.0 ghost ball
0.1 pastel ball
1.0 granite al burm
0.1 granite het al burm
0.1 albino burm
0.2 tiger retics
0.0.1 house gecko
0.0.1 sulcata tortoise
1.0 pug (Frank)
1.1 pit bull terriers (Marlboro & Coco)
1.0 house cat (Kitty)
0.1 wife who puts up with me

Glad that you seem knowledgeable about the market. The $20 quote was a wholesale price.

jb
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com Site received a complete makeover! Check it out!

45-75 bucks is a bit of a stretch.... and 90 these days.... you would probably have to wholesale them...... just being realistic... I would think 25-30$ is more like it.... I've seen Surinames that wouldve sold for 700-800$ barely able to get 250$....

It's frustrating yes... but the worst thing we can do is keep lowering the prices..... once you start pricing your stuff very low.. it only makes things worse by creating reinforces the drop in value ... ex.. people keep seeing adds for super cheap boas..... It's really hard to raise the prices back up.....

I think we all need to do our part to bounce our market back... Obviously some things are out of our control... but the number of offspring we produce is in our control....
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Marc Duhon
Lafayette, Louisiana
SURINAMBOAS.COM
kaiyudsai@SURINAMBOAS.COM

I have to agree with JB here....

DOn't take this the wrong way... of course they are your boas.. and you have the right to do whatever you want with them.... but I think we(all boa enthusiasts) need to keep in mind the effect that our litters have on the market as a whole...... the market is very flooded.. Breeding just for the sake of breeding is never a great idea... It's very hard to sell even the highest end boas... but hets and hypos are a very hard sell.... I personally sat out a few of my Surinames this season because of the market...
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Marc Duhon
Lafayette, Louisiana
SURINAMBOAS.COM
kaiyudsai@SURINAMBOAS.COM

the behaviour you were describing from your female is definitely familiar to me. I usually interpret it as a god sign similarily to what the previous poster was saying. Also from my experience, the male is not always immediately interested.

good luck with the pairing. I would feel free to separate them and reintroduce as you want. it's mostly trial and error to some extent. you'll recognize all the obvious really good signs.

When I first got into boas - a lot of the hype was that females can breed at 30 months of age. although this is apparently possible, it is not necessarily the best thing for the boas. I don't try breeding any of my females until 3 years at minimum and frequently wait till 4 yrs.

the process of raising and breeding any living thing is very cool. good luck. I understand the concern from the previous poster about ability to sell the offspring, but I've given many baby boas away, donated some to schools and sell to a few of the local pet stores in my area. The combined net of all this is a cost to me for keeping and breeding boas. But somethimes that just the cost of doing the things you enjoy.

Patrick