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Some of my thoughts...please post yours too...

ajfreptiles Jan 22, 2005 10:27 AM

I have 3 gravid females, but only 2 are going to support my theory here. The first female had her preovulation swell and I wittnessed a very long ovulation afterward. I can post those dates, but what is concerning is as follows.
The male was done with her and so I put him in with the second female. She was allready in the preovulation swell and they seemed to go right into breeding very quickly...alot sooner than the first female. Then within 2 weeks, the second female was clearly ovulating. The first female was still ovulateing!! It had ovulated on one side and then the following week went to the other side of her body. The second female went into a shed as per the book. The first female shed after the second...strange? I had initially thought about how some females will only have a mid shed. Now I am surmising she did shed correctly and just had to complete ovulations first.

What I feel is unique about this is...100 days POS for my second female is Jan.28th, and 100 days POS for my first female is Feb. 5th. Has anyone ever seen this before?

If so, what were your outcomes?

Both females are clearly full of something...and I was told if it was slugs they would usually dump them 2 weeks prior to the 100 days POS.

Anyway I find it interesting that my second female may have babies before my first. Hope to hear some imput here. Thanks Andy Federico

Replies (4)

bthacker Jan 22, 2005 11:25 AM

.

boidmorphs Jan 22, 2005 11:48 AM

in with both females. I've done this with an anery het snow male and two DH Snow females. He courted both simultaneously and then eventually stayed away on his own. I have even left him in there but he couldn't care less about the girls so I think both took. I'll know in a few months. I've seen to many people put a pair together and rush the male off to the next one and the one after that only to have three litters of slugs. I don't know about you but I prefer babies so I'm always careful to not separate males prematurely.

Hoppy Jan 22, 2005 11:55 AM

Andy,
This year I have kept super detailed records of my boas and their breeding activities. I introduced them in September and had seen breeding activity and courtship all along. In November all of my females went through a shed cycle at the same time (all are on the say temp/feeding/lighting schedules) and this cycle I assumed to be their POS. I was worried because of how soon in the year they were shedding but I did see the swell and observed copulation on several of them. I decided to keep the males and females in together a little longer though to make sure. As you know the biggest breeding mistake is to remove the males too quickly.
The males and females seem to loose interest in one another and I began to separate them for feedings every ten days. Toward the end of December I noticed an renewed interest in breeding with the pairs and the males and females started to lock up again. Starting in the last week of Dec to the first week of Jan. I noticed that all of my females were going back into shed a second time. Now these are very large females that do not shed that often anymore (their growth rate has slowed with their age). This shed took even longer then the first and the darkening of their color was even more dramatic this time. May of the snakes took 3 weeks or so to cycle through their shed process. Now I have a second POS time frame to work with. I am coming to believe that the first shed may have been the first ovulation, but more then likely was the swelling of the glands used to produce the hormones for breeding. The hormone influx is what caused the first group shed and started the darkening process and they second was the actual ovulation and POS. I of course have nothing but theory right now to work on, but with both dates documented I will know more as birthing time comes closer.
So I would suggest that you reintroduce males and females for your breeding until at least a couple of week after their second possible ovulation shed.
These are just my thoughts and theory on them.
Good Luck
-----
Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

ajfreptiles Jan 22, 2005 02:56 PM

Excellent Hoppy. I think having the documentation, will help all of us. I think as you that the more we share this info the more enjoyable this will be for all. I did try to introduce him again, but he would have nothing to do with her. I am very convinced of having more males...that is definite! You really cannot have enough! I will know more too when partuation takes place. There is two different looks to them as for the shapes of the contents of the females, but I will know more about this later too. Also both of my females had their POS when they darkened a noticably darker color, and they had no other sheds. I only have a 2 week span to see what's up...I hope.
I have kept temps constant with little to none varriableness. So according to what Rich Ihle does, I should have my babies at 100 or- days POS. Good luck all. Andy Federico AJF REPTILES

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