Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been raising a pair of argetine rainbow boas and this is thier first year breeding.I am a python guy normally,but my other interest is in the rainbow boa complex.I love working with these little guys,mellow,pretty and from what I am noticing,pretty easy to breed.
I kept my pair seperated for about three months,cut thier food at about the same time.Then started to cool them.I believe the coolest temp they reached was 68 degrees in the evening and 75 in the day.After they had been cooled,I introduced the male to the female.He immediately hooked up.Since then I have introduced him numerous times with numerous copulations.The female has been off feed for about three months now and is getting bigger and bigger.I have been able to palpitate somethng in her belly(feels like about ten little lumps)I have been very gentle about the palpitation(don't worry)
So, it seems she is gravid but there are a few things that concern me.I have them in a fairly good sized enclosure with heat on one side(small heat pad)hide areas and a nice large water bowl.They never seem to sit on the heat,not even close.They are always on the cool side of the enclosure(76 degree mark.I guess I just figured the female would be spending more time on heat as she gestates her little ones.Am I wrong??
The female just went blue this week and is looking to go into shed in the next few days.I am assuming this is a pre-birth shed?I never noticed an ovulation, but she definitely has had palpitatable masses in her that I have noticed for about a month.So I figured this is not a month long ovulation.
Get to the point,right?
What is thier typical gestation period,how many offspring do they generally have and why is she not basking?
any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

This is a good place to start....
Jeff Clark's Rainbow Boa Page

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www.chrisolsonreptiles.com
Naked I see the camp of those who desire nothing

aera,
...Most of what you describe sounds good. The fact that you can palpate lumps is a very good sign. I bred Argentinian Rainbows and had three litters back in the mid 90s. No big litters among them. One litter of 2 plus a couple slugs one litter of 6 and one litter of 11. I would guess that because of the relatively smaller size of this subspecies that the largest litters probably never exceed 20. I am not sure about exact cooling temperatures but I have always kept my Argentinian Rainbows cooler than the other subspecies and I probably cooled them down into the low 60s before breeding. Outside of breeding season adult ARBs seem to do well with cool end cage temps around 70 and warm end temps around 75. I think the fact that they are staying in the cool end of the cage indicates that they do need cooler temps. The fact that the female does not seem to want higher temps is the only indicator that she possibly may not be gravid. Newborn baby ARBs are a little smaller than BRBs and CRBs and mine were not real great eaters at first. I may have been doing something wrong temperature or humidity wise that was causing this. Even after they get started they eat smaller and fewer meals than BRBs and grow slower because of it. With only three litters of baby ARBs I cannot say for sure if there is anyway to predict oviposition date from shedding dates. I have kept data from almost 100 litters from the other subspecies and can say for sure that there is no correlation between shedding dates and oviposition dates for BRBs.
Good luck,
Jeff

>>I have been raising a pair of argetine rainbow boas and this is thier first year breeding.I am a python guy normally,but my other interest is in the rainbow boa complex.I love working with these little guys,mellow,pretty and from what I am noticing,pretty easy to breed.
>> I kept my pair seperated for about three months,cut thier food at about the same time.Then started to cool them.I believe the coolest temp they reached was 68 degrees in the evening and 75 in the day.After they had been cooled,I introduced the male to the female.He immediately hooked up.Since then I have introduced him numerous times with numerous copulations.The female has been off feed for about three months now and is getting bigger and bigger.I have been able to palpitate somethng in her belly(feels like about ten little lumps)I have been very gentle about the palpitation(don't worry)
>> So, it seems she is gravid but there are a few things that concern me.I have them in a fairly good sized enclosure with heat on one side(small heat pad)hide areas and a nice large water bowl.They never seem to sit on the heat,not even close.They are always on the cool side of the enclosure(76 degree mark.I guess I just figured the female would be spending more time on heat as she gestates her little ones.Am I wrong??
>> The female just went blue this week and is looking to go into shed in the next few days.I am assuming this is a pre-birth shed?I never noticed an ovulation, but she definitely has had palpitatable masses in her that I have noticed for about a month.So I figured this is not a month long ovulation.
>>Get to the point,right?
>> What is thier typical gestation period,how many offspring do they generally have and why is she not basking?
>>any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>Thanks!