As far as Dumerils gestation goes, I think the subject is similar to what Jeff Ronne stated about BCI. Just because we can't accurately tell what's happening doesn't mean it's not happening....and consistently. I am not aware of any scientific research into Dumerils in regards to gestation periods, but I do know what I have observed over and over during the last 15+ years of keeping/breeding dumerils. Many people thought there was no way to predict birth, and last year I mentioned on here that I consistently have pre-birth sheds approximately 3-5 days before birth. Now, this is not to say 100% of the time this will happen, sometimes they have given birth then shed 1-2 days later, other times they have shed and given birth up to 10 days later. As with the BCI information published by Jeff, this is meant as a GUIDELINE, not a RULE. Since I wrote that, I have seen many people mention a shed followed by birth shortly after. Many times people mention sheds and have no births, and this is because(I assume) ovulation was mis-diagnosed. I can recall when I first started breeding Dumerils and had little luck with slugs and/or nothing. This was even after I saw swelling and thought-GRAVID! I pulled males too soon, and have told many people DO NOT pull your males until you KNOW the female is gravid. I've since learned to observe my animals and know when to say they're gravid, pull the male, mark the calendar and look forward to approx. 4 months from that date. I just had a Dumerils shed on the 8th, will I have babies soon from her? I can guarantee it. Will they be perfectly healthy? Don't know, but very soon she will drop. If you look down the forum, I believe on March 9th, I asked how everyones season was going and mentioned I had gravid Dumerils. With ovulations in late February, this looks to be another year of consistency within my collection. As I've mentioned before, I don't even look at copulations as I can get copulations 12 months out of the year with my Dumerils. So, say I put them together in September and saw copulations for a week straight, then the male took a break.....so, is he done and she took? NO, that's not how it works. Do I start counting from October and say they bred in September and births are starting in June, so that is 8 months? Perhaps the gestation can vary, actually, I'd say it does. Even in humans you have premature births, and late births. Generally doctors can only GUESS on the date of conception though, so this will account for certain variations. Do I believe I am doing something that makes my dumerils drop at the 4 month mark that I could change to make gestation last 9 months? Nope! I can tell you that I do not do the exact same cycling every year, or put them together at the same time every year. I know Jeff Ronne got a lot of boos and hisses about his information and it took time to be considered as a GOOD GENERAL GUIDELINE to go by. Jeff never said "your boa will ovulate and 105.3 days later they will drop babies". GUIDELINES! As far as a POS, I honestly never paid that much attention. A while back someone asked about it, so I grabbed a couple record cards, and within those few cards, it showed a small consistency for a POS, but I use visual cues to determine whether or not my females are gravid, so I never really paid attention. I also don't mark the calendar anymore, I wait patiently for a shed and then start to keep an eye out for babies. This post isn't detailed, it's long enough without details. I can pull out record cards and give exact dates if necessary, but within days, this info is accurate for Dumerils within my collection. So, basically, this is my OPINION and based STRICTLY on the results I see CONSISTENTLY within MY collection. I'm not saying other people are wrong, if they're stating what happens for them, then that is what happens for them. So, take my opinion for what it's worth. I don't get online much lately, so if you reply with either questions or arguements, allow me a couple days to get back with you. Take care, and good luck to everybody!
Paul
