Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Due to the many sucky aspects of building a new house, I've had to consolidate some of my snakes into fewer cages to make space. I know how dangerous this is, but trust me there is no choice for now. The old house is sold, but the new one isn't going to be finished for about 2 more months. My wife and I have had to move into my Mom's house...who incidently is afraid of snakes... .

I have a pair of DH snows that are about 3.5 ft that were in the same cage. There isn't enough space for yet another cage. The male started trying to breed the female so I moved him into a different cage which contained a female that is about 5.5-6ft. I just noticed that they are locked up as I type this. As much as I would love to have babies, I don't want to hurt the female. She doesn't appear to be ovulating so I don't know if I should take this too serious or what. I don't know the chances of having babies out of this, but it doesn't appear too high. I have another cage that has a 12 year old 8.5 ft female that looks like she would crush the male. Remember he is a skinny 3.5 ft.

Any suggestions on what I should do?

The attached pic is the big female...sorry about the size.

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Travis Rose
Lazy S Snake Ranch
(859) 582-7310
0.2 Normal Columbian
1.1 100% DH for Snow Columbians
0.2 66% DH for Snow Columbians
2.7 Kenyans (1.3 Anerys, 0.1 het for anery, 0.3 Possible hets, 1.0 normal)
0.3 Ball Pythons
0.0.2 Blue Tounged Skinks
0.3 Dogs (1 Full Pitbull, 1 Pit/Husky, & 1 Bernese Mt. Dog cross)
0.3 Cats (1 fat, 1 old, and 1 insane)
1.0 Ferret
0.1 Very understanding wife

God, I feel your pain. I just went through the same thing a couple months ago. I moved my snakes 4 times during the whole move into out new house because peoples phobia of snakes. What I did was put all my cages in storage and went out and bought solid colored sterlite and rubbermaid containers. I've got some nice size boas too and I had a huge pair of argentines in one. If you only have couple months I think you'll be fine the way you've got it. By the time the female would drop you'll be in your new home. Another alternative is to put the female together and go out to but containers to put your males in. I don't know your exact space constaints but I have to fit huge amount of boas in a walk in closet. It was a hassle.

I wish you the best with all situation.
Frank

.... given some good advice. I'll add this.. the NO-1 thing I did to improve the health and breeding success of my Boa was too open up the collection, put them in larger caging with lots of light and room and ventilation. This allowed me to observe them more closely and provide the individual care that Boa thrive on..

That being said.. I did once have a large Boa give birth in a pillow-case... everything went perfectly. But once an WC Hog Is. boa delivered in a solid hide-box and killed several of the babies (apparently) by crushing them against the sides..

What this all adds up to is.. the Boas will make do when they need to, but don't push it.. get them into roomy caging with the proper temps and ventilation as soon as you can.
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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com
www.riobravoreptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus

Thanks for the advice. What do you two think I should do with the happy couple? Let them breed or separate them up some? Hopefully my new house will be done in no more than 2 months. The dry wall is already in, but the builder is SO SLOW, and unorganized to boot.

Thanks,
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Travis Rose
Lazy S Snake Ranch
(859) 582-7310
0.2 Normal Columbian
1.1 100% DH for Snow Columbians
0.2 66% DH for Snow Columbians
2.7 Kenyans (1.3 Anerys, 0.1 het for anery, 0.3 Possible hets, 1.0 normal)
0.3 Ball Pythons
0.0.2 Blue Tounged Skinks
0.3 Dogs (1 Full Pitbull, 1 Pit/Husky, & 1 Bernese Mt. Dog cross)
0.3 Cats (1 fat, 1 old, and 1 insane)
1.0 Ferret
0.1 Very understanding wife