Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm starting to not beleive in pastels either but as far as the definition goes, I think she meets it. Regardless she is very orange and pink. Great clean look, except a little back near the tail. Very clean belly and good symmetry. I have big plans for her. She's cooling right now. I just had her out for a few minutes last night to refresh her cage and water. I'm hoping she's gonna make some awesome hypos or better yet DH Ghosts. I just need to find her a male. I'll be looking for a male dominant hypo or ghost. I hope I can find him. Anyway, take a look. I like her alot. This camera I just got picks up her color exceptionally well.

Just waking up.

All stretched out.

.

Head on shot.

Climbing boxes.

This shows her orange sides pretty well.

Looks better in person of course.

.

And finally her tail. She looks a little skinny in this pic. Anyone think I should break her cooling and feed her a rat before I try breeding her in a little over a month? By the way, this is my first year attempting breeding. It's all I think about and I wanna do everything right so any advice or comments is more than appreciated.

That female is nowhere near ready to breed. Why are you cooling her anyways? That is really not needed, she needs to eat! How old is she- she looks like a two year old, in that case she would be a poor speciman to breed this year. Dont get me wrong she is a very beautiful boa and I might be in a hurry to breed her as well but that would be against my better judgement.

Once againg I hope Im not sounding like a jerk. I just think you would be much happier with the outcome if she was a bit bigger and a little bit older.

My .02

Bob

pic of my pastel female and Ihle salmon this girl ovulated a month after her third birthday--

Thanks for speaking up. But actually she's about 6'. I noticed the pics make her look small too. I've only had her for about 6 months but I would estimate her to be about 3 years old. You think I should hold off? Not even cool her at all?

Sounds like sound advice to me,another years worth of body mass would be the ticket.

Hey Ryan, please understand I am not trying to upset you here, I just have a small piece of advice. Both your hog female and your other female do not have near enough fat reserves to make it through the gestation period. Why take chances? You do not even have the male yet, from what you said...Also I have found that boas do not need cooling to breed. Moderate temp shift is all that is neccessary..(my opinion). I do not know your cooling temps, but I just do not like the word...it says respiratory infection to me....and in most cases death to your snake. Why not wait until next fall that gives you all summer to bulk them up, get your male and insure he is ready too. I hope this helps...that was my intent. Andy

I also do believe she may be a little young. My 02 salmons are almost 6 ft. but I'm giving them the extra year. The most important thing to remember here is that most of us got into the hobby because we love these animals not to make a buck..... that is just a bonus. Why would you risk long term harm to your animal? Also, from my understanding you don't have a male yet. If you aquired a male today, you would still have to quarantine the boa for sometime before introducing him to your collection. You would not want to infest your colony with mites or IBD. Hope this helps.

Also... how do you post pics in here?

Actually, I was planning for something to happen that I wouldn't be able to breed her yet this year. I was just preparing in case. She's seriously alot bigger in person than she looks in the pics. You have to figure, those boxes she's climbing on are 4' long X more than 2' wide. Anyway though, after seeing how much weight she's losing last night, I was thinking I'm gonna have to start feeding her again. I was leaving her off feed until after she had copulated. I'm just playing everything by ear until I see what happens. Experimenting/trial and error. That's the way I learn best. I've been keeping snakes for 20 years and just finally have a leg to stand on with breeding and I have to admit, I am a little impatient when it comes to getting what I want. But of course, I would never want to risk the health of my animals. Thanks for the opinions. I really appreciate them. Hearing from other people with experience is exactly what I need. That's why I'm on this forum like 10 times a day. Because when it comes to breeding I have next to no first hand knowledge.

As far as posting pics, I download them from my camera to my hard drive, then upload them into the KS gallery. When making a new post, you can choose from all the pics you have stored. Find the right one and post. Pretty simple once you get the hang of it and definitely fun. Can also lead to learning new things by having visual examples to back up your questions. Hope that helps. Ryan.

Doesn't it suck the way you have to put a disclaimer on your opinion before you state it, even though it's asked for, as to not offend the person asking for it?

Something is not right, did you measure those boxes with measuring tape because they cant be 4'X more then 2'. If anyone thinks I am wrong please let me know because then I would have to ask where do you get them so I can stack up. My jungle habitats cage is 4'x2'x1' and I know i could never find and rubbermaid type containers that large, with that size you can make a nice boa rack.

I know for a fact they're 48" long. Not sure of the exact other dimensions but I would estimate 24" deep X 8" high. I get mine at Target. They're usually on sale for about $12 a piece. I think they would make a good rack too but no one actually makes a rack that accomodates them. And I've heard a lot of people say that they would make a rack sag in the middle. So, I just stack them. Who needs $400 cages? They're cheap and they work perfectly. Never had a single problem in about 5 years I've been using them now. Oh, heated with human heating pads too.

Hey Ryan, I have seen those sterilites at target too, they are the size you say. I was looking at that pic again where she is climbing the stack...she seems to be long, but her girth is what I am talking about. She will easilly put on weight now that her length has grown and be ready by early fall if you feed her right. Start feeding her 2 large rats every 7 days...she should bulk up. in a couple months step her up to jumbos. Good luck, Andy

Steve and I have a rack from the under bed sterilite for our yearlings and small males... the tubes are 48 inches but are only about 18 wide. and about 8 tall... it works good for our yearlings but not for the adults. Our big 7 and 8 feet females wouldnt fit in there if i forced them. We made the rack from MDF and boy that thing is heavy BUT.... it does really good at calming jumpy snakes cause its mostly darkness and we ran heat tape along the back of each shelf which keeps the heat well.. Just though i would share some ideas...

Sincerely,
Rose Hipskind

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www.srsnakes.com

That's actually the feeding schedule I already have her on when she's feeding. I'm thawing out 2 right now as a matter of fact. I really appreciate the advice. So I take it you bulk yours up and don't feed them again until they've dropped their babies? That's what I was attempting to do but I guess she wasn't bulked up enough cause after a little over 2 months of not eating, this is how skinny she's gotten. Like I said, trial and error. I'm just glad I'm finally to this point. It's taken so long just for me to get some breeders. I'm very picky about my snakes. By the way, the way I was "cooling" her was just dropping her temps by about 10 degrees.

I continue to feed during gestation period, until the last month. Then no more food. The meal size at that time during gestation is only a 1 med. or 1 large rat depending on the size of female every 2 - 3 weeks. You should try to find the boa manual, it has breeding section written by jeff Ronne, and covers what you should do pretty well. Andy

For anybody wanting great breeding information.... I recommend the DVD made by VPI and Rich Ihle... tons of great information on breeding.

Alright! I figured how to get photos up in here. Here is some eye candy for you.

Thats a keeper alright! Did you produce that? Nice hypo. Andy

No, she was produced by Mike Hancock and Rich Ihle. I just purchased the striped salmon male pictured from Rob Golden. He produced an awesome litter of striped salmons and normals. I can't wait to see what the offspring of Paprika and my new male will look like.