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Hi all - I have a female rainbow that I'm hoping might be gravid (*cross fingers*), and I was wondering at what point in the 5-month gestation I could start looking for visible signs? I assume you can't palpate a boa as easily as a python, for obvious reasons...Jeff, I read your article that mentioned ovulation swelling lasting a very short time. She has been inexplicably off feed for about 4 weeks - her husbandry conditions have not changed at all, and she was happy as can be and pounding her f/t before. We had some unusually cool weather a while back (I'm in Texas, so cool usually doesn't happen until December/January), and the male she was recently housed with was looking restless. I never intentionally cooled, as I wasn't planning on breeding this season. Never observed any breeding, but now that she's off feed and has taken to laying in strange postures (tight coil, laying sideways with her belly up), I'm wondering...am I too optimistic? She did shed right around the time she went off-feed, but the others have gone through another shed cycle and she has not (they all normally shed around the same time). It's all very perplexing; I'm 99.9999% sure this is not a husbandry problem. And please don't jump me for co-housing like the nice folks at the BP forum might.
This is the pair:

King, my big male (you'd never know from these pics how big he is; he will never hold still, hence my boyfriend's arm in the pic)

Bonnie, my hopeful mom-to-be (also a brat when it comes to holding still - and she's bigger and stronger than King!)

I would be very interested to see what a combination of King's dark red and Bonnie's orange yielded; I'd be very interested to hear any speculation/experience from those who know more about this than I!

Really nice pair of BRBs! It sounds like she might be gravid and I certainly hope she is.
Lora

Ashley,
. It is often difficult to tell for sure if they are gravid. My females usually eat well around the time the males are busy trying to mate with them and continue eating until a few weeks after the males lose interest in mating. At that time the females go off feed and suddenly look gravid with noticable and palpable lumpiness starting 18 to 24 inches in front of the vent. Every year I have at least a couple of females that are bred and look and act gravid and go many months without eating and then not lay any babies. About all you can do now is keep your female with a warm spot in the cage so she can gestate if she is gravid.
Good Luck!
Jeff

>>Hi all - I have a female rainbow that I'm hoping might be gravid (*cross fingers*), and I was wondering at what point in the 5-month gestation I could start looking for visible signs? I assume you can't palpate a boa as easily as a python, for obvious reasons...Jeff, I read your article that mentioned ovulation swelling lasting a very short time. She has been inexplicably off feed for about 4 weeks - her husbandry conditions have not changed at all, and she was happy as can be and pounding her f/t before. We had some unusually cool weather a while back (I'm in Texas, so cool usually doesn't happen until December/January), and the male she was recently housed with was looking restless. I never intentionally cooled, as I wasn't planning on breeding this season. Never observed any breeding, but now that she's off feed and has taken to laying in strange postures (tight coil, laying sideways with her belly up), I'm wondering...am I too optimistic? She did shed right around the time she went off-feed, but the others have gone through another shed cycle and she has not (they all normally shed around the same time). It's all very perplexing; I'm 99.9999% sure this is not a husbandry problem. And please don't jump me for co-housing like the nice folks at the BP forum might.
>>This is the pair:
>>
>>King, my big male (you'd never know from these pics how big he is; he will never hold still, hence my boyfriend's arm in the pic)
>>
>>
>>
>>Bonnie, my hopeful mom-to-be (also a brat when it comes to holding still - and she's bigger and stronger than King!)
>>
>>
>>
>>I would be very interested to see what a combination of King's dark red and Bonnie's orange yielded; I'd be very interested to hear any speculation/experience from those who know more about this than I!
>>
>>