Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted this on the rear-fang forum but wanted to post it here just incase some of you don't visit that forum, and booms are definitely 'venomous' snakes. After a long, over 5 month wait since they first copulated, my smaller female boom laid eggs yesterday. She laid 5 eggs, one of which is definitely a slug (much tinier than the others). The eggs are a yellow color and upon first observation, no veining was apparent. Panick time right? Well, I almost did, thinking oh great, after all this time, and then she lays all slugs. But in each egg I could just barely see a small red spot, indicating that maybe, just maybe, there was an embryo in there. However, these eggs are wholly different from the colubrid eggs I'm used to dealing with (king and hognose). Those snake lay eggs that are already well on their way to development and have really apparent veining. I thought surely after such a long gestation, the development of these boom eggs would be much further along. This morning I candled them, and to my surprise I can now faintly detect small veins beginning to extend from the place where the embryo most likely is. This all just strikes me as really odd, but then again, the literature I've read so far on this species' reproductive habits portrays them as a snake that really takes its time. Like I said, mine went over 5 months between copulation and ovoposition, then eggs can take upwards of 90 days or longer to incubate. I guess all that just helps to show that booms aren't exactly your typical colubrid, as if it wasn't already apparent!

So anyway, here's keeping my fingers crossed for these 4 decent-looking eggs. Oh, and also, these eggs are MUCH larger than what I was expecting, especially from a snake this size. This female is only around 4' and stayed pretty slender throughout the entire gestation (though in the last few weeks, her posterior did extend a little bit). A 4' boom may only have a girth of 1-1.5" in its thickest part, and this snake is no exception. The eggs, however, are each around 2" or so long, and at least .5 to 1" thick. Kind of amazing to see a snake this size lay eggs that size. I theorized early on that booms probably don't become just exceedingly swollen like some species because of their way of life, having to move through branches and such, and it looks like I might have just guessed right. Anyway, I'll keep the board updated on the progress of these eggs. Honestly though, all I'm hoping for is just one egg to make it, because then at least I could say I was somewhat successful propogating this species. Thanks for reading.
-Chance
River Valley Snakes

Congrats Chance!

Nice goin', Chance. Best of luck with the incubation.

~~Greg~~

I just wanted to thank both of you for your kind words. I really do hope this works out, but if it doesn't this go around, at least I know what to do now to 'get them in the mood' (nothing, basically...lol). I'm assuming not many other people are really working to try to breed this species, as they really seem to need almost no pushing to do it. They are just an all-around fascinating species. Everything about them, from their dentition (yikes!), to their scalation, to their feeding habits (again, yikes!), yadda yadda yadda is just completely fascinating and seems to put them in a class all their own. Who knows, maybe one day, with the help of BGF, heh, taxonomical science will take a look at Colubridae and say "oops!" and correct a lot of obvious errors. Anyway, enough of my rant, I'll try to get some pictures taken here soon of the eggs and the mom and post them, if I can figure out the new posting system.
-Chance

Hi Chance!

Wow! Really great you have eggs from the boomslangs! Congratulations!

I just have bought 1.1 Dispholidus typus adult and hoping to get them to mate next year. Can you tell me something about your specimens? What to you feed them? How long do you have them in captivity? Where are you're specimens from? How big are they?

Didn't you did nothing at all to "get them in the mood"?

Thanks!

Freek Vonk

ps. do you know if anyone have bred them before? Not often I think...

>>Hi Chance!
>>
>>Wow! Really great you have eggs from the boomslangs! Congratulations!

Thanks for the congrats. It was a pretty big surprise to me, because of how long it was taking, but a good surprise nonetheless.

>>I just have bought 1.1 Dispholidus typus adult and hoping to get them to mate next year. Can you tell me something about your specimens? What to you feed them? How long do you have them in captivity? Where are you're specimens from? How big are they?

You probably have a good shot at getting them to mate. I got my 1.2 adults back in Sept or so of last year. The smaller female (the one that just laid) began eating pretty quickly, but the other two stayed stubborn for the first, probably one and a half to two months I had them. I got them treated a few times though, as booms come in pretty much loaded with parasites. After a little while though, once they were settled down and not as parasite-full, they began eating with the same gusto the other female had been. Currently mine are feeding on prekilled mice and small rats. I do generally have to give them a jiggle or two to get the snake's attention, but once the snake figures out what it is, the typical boom feeding responce kicks in. If yours are eating yet, you know what I mean. If not, watch out! Feeding time is, IMO, the most dangerous time to work around these snakes. Otherwise, I find them to be very mild mannered and very inquisitive, and mine at least are not aggressive in the slightest. Some can be though, so don't take that for a given. I acquired my specimens from Ray Hunter at Exotic Reptiles Jungle in FL. Most likely they were imported from Tanzania, though I can't say for certain. My smaller female is around 4', the male and bigger female are both around 5.5'. Their sizes are generally pretty much max for D. typus. Some specimens can hit 6' or a little over, but they are rarities.

>>Didn't you did nothing at all to "get them in the mood"?

The only thing I can think of that may have helped to trigger them, since I didn't try any cycling methods or brumation or anything, would be light cycling. They are in a room with windows, so obviously they are going to have some sense of when it's light or when it's dark (they'd probably know that without the windows anyway). I did mist them a few times late last year, so that might have played a roll as well. If you want to cycle them, I'd just do it like any colubrid. They can be brumated very similarly to other colubs, stop feeding and lower their temps over a 2 to 3 week period. Leave them like this for 3 months, and then over another 2 to 3 week period bring them back out. However, unless my snakes just stop mating and I think it's necessary, I probably won't ever do any cycling like that with this species. Obviously they can produce viable eggs without it, and certainly have the zeal to want to mate (!) so it would be pointless.

>>Thanks!
>>
>>Freek Vonk
>>
>>ps. do you know if anyone have bred them before? Not often I think...

I don't know of any reports from my country (US) of people breeding them. Like I said in one of my earlier posts, I acquired the February 1995 issue of the Chicago Herp Society's newsletter, and in it is an extensive article on the captive care and reproduction of D. typus. However, all the information in this article was acquired from different places in Africa. So, I'm sure there are some people breeding them somewhere, but they are either being very secret about it or they are just not in the US. Some zoos might be breeding them as well, but again, I haven't heard of anything specifically.

Anyway, good luck on breeding yours!! Post pictures if you can. I'm going to try to get around to taking some new pictures of mine and of the eggs and get them posted.
-Chance

I just wanted to thank both of you for your kind words. I really do hope this works out, but if it doesn't this go around, at least I know what to do now to 'get them in the mood' (nothing, basically...lol). I'm assuming not many other people aren't really working to try to breed this species, as they really seem to need almost no pushing to do it. They are just an all-around fascinating species. Everything about them, from their dentition (yikes!), to their scalation, to their feeding habits (again, yikes!), yadda yadda yadda is just completely fascinating and seems to put them in a class all their own. Who knows, maybe one day, with the help of BGF of course, taxonomical science will take a look at Colubridae and say "oops!" and correct a lot of obvious errors. Anyway, enough of my rant, I'll try to get some pictures taken here soon of the eggs and the mom and post them, if I can figure out the new posting system.
-Chance

Good job Chance. Congrats. Now I can come back up there and get those pics!

Tom

>>Good job Chance. Congrats. Now I can come back up there and get those pics!
>>
>> Tom

Hah, any time Tom. Thanks for the good words. I wish I would have gotten you to get a picture of her when you were here, because stupid me...I didn't get any "before" pictures...ah well, I still have one more I can do that with, hopefully.

Even if all the babies come out with ordinary brown/grey coloration, keep them around for awhile - it took my female over a year to change into her adult coloration which is melanistic jet black like her mother. Bit of an odd color for a boomer, and if I had not raised her myself I'd wonder if I was looking at Thrasops jacksoni. LOL

>>Even if all the babies come out with ordinary brown/grey coloration, keep them around for awhile - it took my female over a year to change into her adult coloration which is melanistic jet black like her mother. Bit of an odd color for a boomer, and if I had not raised her myself I'd wonder if I was looking at Thrasops jacksoni. LOL

Tanith, yeah, the coloration from juvies to adults is pretty remarkable. I've seen pictures of juveniles, and in a book I have it describes them as being brown to grayish above with a cream white underside. I honestly couldn't care less if the babies come out turd brown and stay that way throughout their lives, I have just completely fallen in love with this species and can't wait to see them grow. Like I think I've already said (but if not, saying it now), with such a small number of eggs, I seriously doubt I'll even be selling any yet. Even if they do turn out to all be males, the males are the ones with the nicest colors (usually)!!! so I definitely want to watch them grow up. Hopefully though my melanistic female boom (which is much bigger than the one that just laid, at around 5.5'), will go here soon and should lay many more than this other did, because I would like to get a few c.b.b. animals out there. And also, since booms are very social animals and breed the best in large groups, I'm wanting to definitely keep a couple babies as well as get some more w.c. adults and try to build up a nice colony. I have a few ideas in mind for a large corner of the room cage that would probably easily house upwards of 6 or 7 booms, and with it being next to a window, they would get natural light cycles. Not sure all that really matters that much when it comes to breeding though, because my male is still courting and trying to breed with the females and it has now been almost 6 months since they began....geez.

I do like the melanistic slangs. And yeah, I know exactly what you mean about thinking it was T. jacksoni! I had to look up scalation counts two different times just to be sure (once when I first got them, and then a little more recently when Ryan in TX posted a female jacksoni for sale and posted pictures). But she's for sure D. typus. A few months ago I saw a guy posting an ad for a pair of adults, and the female looked solid black. Too bad I didn't have a whole lot of money at the time. My female isn't solid black...well not yet, but since winter she has been darkening and is not maybe only 10 or so percent greenish and mostly black. I hope to be able to get a completely black female, as well as a nicely-marked male to add to my group, but I may just lucked out on the latter just today.