Reptile & Amphibian Forums

okay here goes a question I have been wanting to know for a while but have been scared to ask haha. of course its not in the search but when I searched that's why im tempted to ask it. okay well when I lived at home my mom use grow glowers, she could control when and when they didn't flower with the temp and lighting. so what im wondering is can you control when the snakes breeding "season" is? like say you drop the temp for one pair in jan and breed and then the other pair in mar and breed them and another pair in June and breed and my 4th pair in October and breed? so I will be having year round seasons just like people can do with indoor flowering. I dont see why not but im guessing there is a explanation having to do with pressure? when I did searches I have seen people saying they have a boa due in October, Jan, mar and all diff months that's why im asking this. let me know! thanks

I only get to visit the forum a few times per week due to time restrictions but I must say you must be the most eager beaver of breeding that I have seen in some time. I am not saying that this is bad, but suggesting that you slow down a bit and work on just getting your boas to breed for the first time, let alone take on the advanced work of inducing your boas anytime of the year.

Boas and flowers are an odd comparison but I at least understand what you are trying to say and it has been tried many times. Here are some of the problems with what you are trying to due and the reasons it is so hard.
Inducing or cycling a boa to breed is not simply based on lighting and temps, there is also barometric pressure, humidity, and pheromones to consider and attempt to control. Several people have been successful in controlling what time of the year that their babies are born, by a few months here and there. But it also has a lot to do with where they are located. In FL where I live it is much more difficult to try and cycle a boa into season in the Month of August when the temps are still in the high 90’s and hurricanes are all over the place. In MN it may be easier because the temps are already cooling, the light cycles are already changing and the Humidity and pressure fall into play much earlier.
Still manipulate the boas from pair to pair is even harder due to the pheromones that these snakes give off during breeding. One breeding female in a house can/will trigger all the males into breeding activity just by the chemical scents that she puts off. Trying to control this is nearly impossible.

So, in short you could probably control which few months that your snakes will breed in by two or three months in either direction, but the chance of you getting a different pair of boas to breed each month to produce year round babies is not practical for a hobby breeding and is very difficult for professional ones.

But going back to my first statement, learn to crawl before you learn to sprint. See if you can get the boas to breed at all before you move onto more advanced breedings. It is not as easy as you might think and the research needs to be done, just throwing dozens of questions at the forum boards is not doing research, I actually refer to this as “Mind Sucking” Where a person wants to know everything about breeding in a simple post when it has taken many of us several decades to learn what we know. Go to the Library and check out a few books, visit the different web sites and print out the information, bye the Boa Constrictors manual for the $9 it sells for in the pet stores and find some of the knowledge that has already been written and handed to you. To continue to ask people, who have already provided this information in one way or another, to write it down all over again so you won’t have to search for it tends to make them upset and they will start to ignore your questions. There is a search engine on this site and for the four or five years that I have been visiting this site I can almost guarantee that every questions is already asked and written down somewhere, just use the search engine to look for it and then if you can find it try asking one simple question to help you get going in the right direction.
Good luck in your breeding attempts, it will work out for you, it just takes time, patience and a lot of research.
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

ya i figured there was some factors why yuo couldnt but just was not sure why. thanks for clearing it up. well i live in FL too so what times should i drop the temps and introduce the male to the female?

different parts of the country experience different weather at different times of the year.
In New York, it is cold in October and breeding beings 'early' so that babies are born around Jan-Mar.

In Florida, it isn't even as cool as 50 degrees or so until maybe February, so breeding begins 'late' and babies show up around Jun-Aug.

Boas may be harder to 'trick' into believing it is winter or breeding time..

From what I understand, Ball Pythons can and do breed all year round..
what I mean is, it is much easier to breed them year round without relying so much on 'winter' and 'cycling'.
Again, just what I believe/understand, not necessarily fact.

I lived in Florida one year when the winter never even got past 65, and none of my boas bred - not one of 12 females became gravid.

later -Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin